Gladiolus
by namikaze-chan
Summary: Dangerous games often have dangerous consequences. And it would be her job to be his shield and to dispose of anyone who would bring harm to him. was it because he was her childhood friend or there was something more than what she had signed for? FemKuroxAkashi
1. How it all started

Chapter one

* * *

another story from me: this is was not supposed to be for Kurobasu but I decided to post it as Kurokobasu fanfic and if I get a good response, I will continue this.(I just couldn't hold myself to post this, sorry .)

before you read:(you have been warned)

1. this is where Kuroko is a female Kuroko and set in alternate universe.

2. the character might be OOC

3. the information I could share so far: Kuroko is 27, Akashi is 27(all the character are born in the same year), Kise is 28

4. please leave a review if you want this story to keep going.

* * *

-x-

_Have you ever wondered about the future? If you could have known about the future, will you make a promise that you wouldn't be able to fulfill in the future?_

_~Twenty years ago.~_

"_Sei, you will be leaving now?" A girl with her long teal colored hair called for her best friend. They have known each other for two years and they were always together._

"_my parents was calling me! I wish we could have played longer" a boy with his short red colored hair said to his best friend._

"_but you said you would play the monkey bar with me before you leave?" the girl's eyes started to get teary and she started to squeezed the doll in her hand harder. "this is our last day before we went to the elementary school! And you said you have to go far away from here"_

"_this is my new address and it wasn't that far from where I used to live, if I have time, I would go to this park and we could play the monkey bar just before the dark" the red-haired boy also had tears in his eyes._

"_you promise that you will come here every day?" the girl asked while she started to furiously wiped the tears on her face._

"_I promise! That's why you should wait for me until I have come to get you" The boy said with a big smile on his face while he had mucus coming out from his nose and his tears fall even harder than before. The boy left the park after he heard his parent called him again. He waved his good-bye to his best friend before he entered the car. The girl also waved furiously at the boy until she couldn't see him again._

_As they have promised, the girl waited for the boy every day under the monkey bar. He didn't come the next day after he left with his parents_

_And the next day_

_He also didn't come to the park day after day that girl was waiting for him. then that girl had a great idea to came to his house so she started to save little by little from the little money she got as an allowance until it was enough to purchase a bus ticket to his house. That ten minutes inside the bus was too long for her but she patiently wait until she had arrived to the bus station that was supposed to be near his house. She run and checked the number on each house until she found his house number. Because she was a short girl, it took all of her jumping effort to ring the bell to his house._

"_what can I do little girl?" a woman who appeared to be in her late twenty opened the door for her._

"_anou, can I play with Sei-kun?" she asked the woman._

"_I am afraid we don't have anyone named Sei in here" the woman looked apologetic._

"_is this the address of this house?" she showed the woman a little paper she had kept as her treasure from her best friend._

"_yes, but we just moved in here one month ago. Maybe this 'Sei' you were looking for has moved from this house"_

-x-

~Present Time~

"that dream again" a teal haired girl said when she opened her eyes after she heard her alarm ringing in her ear. She saw the clock showed that she has woke up at her usual time, seven in the morning, and she saw on her cell that she has one message.

"I should have come to the office at noon" she read the text message before she went to laid back again on her bed. She should be getting ready to go to the office but it seemed she wasn't needed to attend the office before lunch. And she hasn't waked up in a good mood after the dream she just had.

"five more minutes" she mumbled before she closed her eyes once again

-x-

"Kuroko Tetsumi" she heard her name being called by the man who was standing in front of her. she was sitting In the waiting room for thirty minutes. She was informed that her employer still had a business he had to do and she had to wait until he finished his business.

"hai" she answered swiftly.

"Akashi-sama has been waiting for you" he opened the door to the office for her. Kuroko didn't forget to show her respect by bowing down a little when she went passed the guards.

"Good Morning, Akashi-kun" Kuroko greeted the red-haired man who was sitting in a big chair in front of her. in front of him was a big mahogany desk that had several papers in it along with.

"Tetsumi" he greeted back. He searched for a file in his desk while Kuroko watched his movement. She saw that he looked good with his usual white collared shirt and his heterochromatic eyes looked seriously at the various files in his desk. She had worked as the secret informant for Akashi's family for about two years. It was about the same time Akashi's parents was murdered and he was instantly inheriting all the fortune his family left behind at the age of twenty-six.

"this is the next assignment for you" he gave him a piece of photo and Kuroko saw there was a picture of a middle age man around the age of forty with a square glasses. She has seen that man somewhere before and she tried to recalled where she had seen him. And she suddenly remembered.

"This man was the new head security that you just approved the week earlier"

"Correct. You have a good memory about people you just saw for a moment" Akashi praised her and it made her smile.

"What should I do with this man?" Kuroko said. Her face was serious this time.

"He was under the accusation to be a spy from X- Company. You know what to do"

"Yes" Kuroko said before she went to leave her seat to started her job.

-x-

"You got another job, Kurokocchi?" she heard someone called her.

"Yes, this time another spy that tried to get information from the inside" Kuroko complained. She went to her desk to send the information she got to another one of her partner.

"You will inform Midorimacchi about the situation before you went to 'clean' this new target then?" that man took a peek from the top of Kuroko's head to saw the information on her laptop.

"Kise-kun. Please look at your own laptop and processing the data I have given to you" Kuroko said with an unhappy tone to her work-mate. Kise is the best hacker Kuroko could have found. He was a drop out college student when Kuroko found him one year ago and now he was working with her for Akashi's company. Kise was happy with the free hi-tech computer and unbelievably fast internet he had and he could always asked for a new computer if the old one was not good enough in his opinion. When she founded him, he was halfway to hack into Akashi's company record. Just when Kuroko was about to finished him, Akashi saw the potential in him and made him work undercover as one of Kuroko's partner.

"Yes~" Kise went to his desk and type furiously on his computer. The screen went into black then blue then to its normal color again before Kise opened several windows at once. "By the way Kurokocchi, tomorrow is the day "

"The day for what?" Kuroko was confused. She couldn't recall any anniversary for the next day or any important matters she had to attend for the next day.

"The day that—" Kise suddenly stop speaking before his eyes went wide at the information he got. Kuroko went to saw what Kise had found and it also surprised him.

"This man, he is an assassin?" Kuroko's eyes went wide. In that computer there was information about the new head security as one of the top assassin that used to work in the governmental area. It was becoming more amazing because that man had passed the screening test from her.

"Aominecchi is not in the area, what should we do Kurokocchi?" Kise kept digging into that man combat ability and it scared him even more with the information he had gathered.

"Aomine is not here, I will handle this guy" Kuroko said before she prepared the knife in her waist.

"We should wait for Aominecchi! You will get killed Kurokocchi" Kise tried to stop her.

'Aomine might be an ex-soldier but I was trained with him and I could not let Akashi got killed by this man" Kuroko said before she tied her hair.

"But still, he won't attack that fast. Aominecchi will be back next week and we should—"Kise stopped talking when he saw Kuroko glare at him.

"Please tell Midorima to clear the area near Apartment in street 30. " Kuroko said before she went to pick her hearing devices. Kise also picked his hearing device and went to his laptop.

"He is not in his house" Kise informed her. Kuroko stopped her preparation to hear at what Kise was going to say. "He is on his way to the house at the end of 1-2 Toshima-Ku" Kise informed her. Kuroko was clearly familiar with that address

"What house number?" she asked Kise, dread was the only thing she could feel at that moment.

"Four"

Kuroko instantly ran to the parking area. She didn't even stopped to use the elevator and opted to use the emergency stairs to run into her motorcycle that was parked in the lobby area. When she saw her motorcycle, she started the engine and instantly speed up her motorcycle until it was over the allowed speed limit.

"Kise, can you hear me?" she said to her hearing devices.

"Yes, I have cleared the traffic for you to go without any problem to your destination" she heard Kise said. She turned the gas even more and make her way past the cars in front of her.

"Have you informed Midorima about it?"

"Yes, but I couldn't believe this assassin was this bold. He went directly to Akashicchi's house"

"Keep me informed. " she was focused to arrived at Akashi's place before the assassin could do any harm to Akashi.

-x-

When she had arrived at Akashi's house, she run through the front door to find Akashi was lounging in the living room with a magazine in his hand.

"You came back already?" Akashi asked.

"Thank god, you are okay" Kuroko took a relieved breath before she went to look at Akashi and really confirmed that he was okay.

"What happened? it is a rare occurrence for you to be arriving this early "

"Someone was about to assassinated you inside your house. Are you sure no one arrived here?" Kuroko went cautious again. She looked around the house to see someone was lying in the corner of the living room. she gasped in surprised and she couldn't believed that she missed this man body when she entered the room. _Is this man dead?_

"I took care of this man already. Midorima is on his was along with the cleaner" Akashi suddenly said as if he could read her mind.

"Thank you" Kuroko said in a low voice. She went to inspect the man and found a knife and a hand gun with him. But she saw no trace of injury in that man's body; she just saw his head were at a very odd angle. _Akashi must have used his martial arts which meant he knew from the beginning this man was targeting him _Kuroko thought.

"Why do you assign him to me if you knew he would be coming from the start?"

"Do I need a reason to give you a job?" Akashi asked her back. Kuroko frowned and she was about to said something but Midorima appeared in the room and she hold her question immediately.

"What's going on in here? You two are too calm with a dead assassin in your living room" Midorima said to both of them.

"I am going back to my room" she informed them and she left the room immediately and she didn't forget to slammed the door on her way out.

"I couldn't understand why she told me that the assassin would go to 'Akashi-kun's' house when in fact the two of you are living in this house. together" Midorima said to the red haired male.

"You should have asked her" Akashi said with a crooked smile on his lips. And he also left the room just before the special team went to 'clean' the house.

-x-


	2. What?

Chapter two

* * *

another changes in this story

the height off everyone in this chapter

Kuroko Tetsumi= 162 cm(yes, I changed Kuroko's height for the purpose of the later chapter. I have thought about making Kuroko shorter than this but it. but poor Kuroko would be like a midget among the other GoM character -except Akashi- that is over 180cm)

Akashi Seijuro = 173cm

Momoi Satsuki= 165cm (I thought Momoi should be a little taller. this is also for the purpose in the later chapter)

Aomine Daiki= 193cm

Kise Ryouta= 189 cm

Midorima Shintaro= 195cm

* * *

_What if in the future, you met someone who was precious to you even when that person had betrayed you? And yet that person is oblivious to the pain in your heart?_

_-x-_

_Thirteen years ago~_

"_Today was my first day entering the middle school and I manage to enter the prestigious Teiko Middle school! I wonder what kind of friend I would make in this school." A girl with shoulder length haired said in her mind. Her teal colored haired sway elegantly by the way she moved her body towards the front gate and it catch few attention from the male that was lounging around the school gate._

_Then she heard few girls squealing and giggling while they pointed at something behind her or rather someone because when she turned around, she saw a very familiar crimson eyes that haunt her childhood dream. The same pair of eyes that she had longed to see in the park every day. For the first three years of her elementary school day. He shifted his glanced to look at her and his eyes meet hers for the first time._

"_I hope he didn't remember me" She told to herself before she turned around and make her way to her class. She was the one who broke the eye contact between them and she walked slowly and hoping to hear him calling her name despite she said she didn't want him to remember her._

_She kept walking slowly. She tried to remembered how he called her name they last time they met in the park before he move to another place. She imagined what kind of reaction she would have if he called her. Would she come and running to hug him? or would he come to where she was and spin her around like in the movie?_

_She waited and she kept waiting_

_But he never called her name even when he was standing next to her in the locker when she wanted to changed her shoes._

"_He didn't remember me" she whispered to herself. _

_-x-_

~Present time~

It was a normal day in Kuroko's office. Normal as in she didn't have any job or anyone to investigate for one whole week. She saw Kise was happily playing with his computer and she hated how happy he could be in this relaxed day when all she could think was it was too peaceful.

"Kise-kun. We really didn't have anyone to investigate? Or anything to do at all?" Kuroko asked Kise.

"Kurokocchi, not every day someone wanted to target this company." Kise told his partner while he typed something in his laptop. Kuroko still didn't look happy when she heard Kise's sarcastic remark. "Try to relaxed, Kurokocchi" Kise advised her.

"I am going out" Kuroko told Kise. While she grabbed her jacket and hastily made her way out of their office.

"Have fun" Kise shouted before Kuroko closed the door.

Kuroko stride her way to the elevator and stopped when she was about to pressed the button that would brought her to the lobby. She hesitated for a moment before she pressed the button that would bring her to the top floor.

"is Akashi-kun available?" she asked the guards in front of the room once she had arrived at the top floor.

" Akashi-sama had a guest in his office. You could wait in the waiting room if you still wished to, Kuroko-sama" the guards told her.

"Don't worry I was just passing by" Kuroko was about to leave the room when she saw a woman with long wavy blond hair coming out from Akashi's office. That woman slightly taller than Akashi but it was because of her black platform heels that she used.

"Thank you for accepting my offer. I am looking forward to our dinner tonight" the woman said to Akashi. She turned around and Kuroko could see a mesmerizing silver-colored eyes looking at her. "Hello"

"Good afternoon" Kuroko bowed down when she greeted that woman back.

"Have a safe trip, Hazami-sama" Akashi bowed down to her. That woman also bowed down before she went to the elevator. "And what do you need, Kuroko?" Akashi shifted his attention to the girl who was about to leave the room.

"Nothing" Kuroko said coldly. She was about to followed the woman to the elevator but Akashi stopped her once again with the words she had waited for.

"I have a job for you"

-x-

"What is this?" Kuroko said when she looked at the outfit she wore few hours after Akashi told her that he had a new job for her.

"A dress" Akashi said while he fixed the tuxedo he wore.

"Why should I wear this dress? I could go to the restaurant while using my usual attire that you kept saying I look like a secret service agent" Kuroko asked. She was clearly unhappy with the extra detail Akashi forgot to mention when he told her he had a new job for her.

"Are you saying that you don't mind telling my potential business partner that she was someone who couldn't be trusted that I felt the need to bring a guard on a normal dinner night with her?" Akashi raised one of his eyebrows and he saw Kuroko fidgeting a little.

"Well, I could always do undercover work" Kuroko looked at her feet while she fidgeting even more when she felt Akashi was looking at her..

"Where do you planning to work undercover when she already seen you this afternoon? Wouldn't it be more convincing if you came in as my date" Akashi intentionally provoked her. Her eyes were looking at her feet as if it was the most interesting things in the world and he loved to see the spark in her eyes even when he knew she already lose the argument but she didn't want to admit her defeat.

"But why using a dress? She was your date for the night and I didn't need to act like your date and ruined your night with her" Kuroko mumbled lowly. But it was loud enough to be heard by Akashi. It brought a big smile on his lips when he felt satisfied after knowing what was in Kuroko's mind. She saw the knowing smile on his face and she scowled before mumbling "I look hideous in this dress"

" let's get going" Akashi grab the big accessory that put her hair in the quick up-do style on his way out of that room.

"Seijuro! Give me back that hair piece! It took me half an hour to style my hair like that!" Kuroko shouted and was about to run before Akashi turned around and said "a woman should not screamed or run in a dress. Beside you look better with your hair down" before he raised his right hand that has her hair pieces in it and waved it to his left and right before he left the room. Kuroko's face was red from fuming and embarrassment when he complimented her

-x-

"Good Evening Akashi-sama. Hazami-sama has been waiting" one of the waiter said after Akashi entered the restaurant and one of the waiter greeted him. Akashi followed the waiter to one of the VIP room and he only saw two chairs with one table in it. One of that chairs already had someone seated in it.

"I believed you will need another chair and a bigger room, Hazami-sama" Akashi said to the woman who was waiting with a glass of red wine in her hand.

"are you expecting someone, Akashi-sama?" the woman asked him back with a suggestive tone. Akashi gave her his half-smile look before he pulled someone to his side.

"what—" Kuroko was about to complained but she stumbled slightly when Akashi suddenly pulled her again when she refused to move after the first time he pulled her and it was a good thing he twirled her body when she was about to embarrassed herself in front of his client and pull her by the waist towards his body.

"I believed I have informed you that I would be bringing a date with me" Kuroko couldn't see the expression on Akashi's face because he put his hand on the back of her head to keep her head buried in his chest. She tried to wiggling out of his grasp but she failed because he already tightened the arm around her waist.

"I wasn't aware of her presence" Kuroko heard the woman said. She could hear that woman was not pleased with the sudden change in her plan. But she could already felt the hatred coming from that woman and it was clearly directed to Kuroko.

"I apologize for the sudden changes in this dinner night. I assumed it would be okay for me to bring someone to accompany me" Akashi said in a guarded tone. Kuroko could hear the edge around his tone and he wasn't that happy for some reason.

"I am sorry to have caused such a misunderstanding. "Kuroko could hear a screech and the sound of someone coming to where she and Akashi were standing. "To be honest I was thinking to get to know Akashi-sama personally. But I wasn't aware that Akashi-sama already had his eyes on someone" Kuroko felt Akashi put something in her ear before he let go of her and went to asked to waiter if they have extra chair or another vacant VIP room that could accommodate the three of them. He clearly pretended to not hearing the seductive word Hazami just said.

"You are an eyesore" Kuroko heard Hazami suddenly told her. She went to look at the blond woman that was clearly taller than Kuroko and Kuroko realized that she used the most revealing dress she ever seen in her entire life.

"Hazami-sama, we have to move to another room" the waiter appeared out of nowhere to tell her. "Also Akashi-sama told me to tell Kuroko-sama that we didn't have vanilla milkshake in here" the waiter told Kuroko.

"Milkshake? what kind of woman drink that cheap and trashy food like that? I wonder what Akashi-sama saw in a little girl like you. Such an ugly creature" Hazami sneered at Kuroko. She didn't forget to bump her shoulder to Kuroko's on her way out from that room.

"Excuse me, where is the washroom?" Kuroko ignored the arrogant remark from Hazami and went to the direction where the waiter had shown her. She didn't forget to ask where the room Akashi and Hazami has gone into.

-x-

"Akashi-sama, you look absolutely handsome in formal clothes" Hazami said suggestively while she leaned slightly forward to the table.

"Thank you. I am not worthy of a compliment from such a big name like yours, Hazami-sama" Akashi answered calmly.

"What are you saying Akashi-sama, your name is clearly bigger than mine. I am honored to be having dinner with the heir from Akashi fortune"

"Your family wanted to buy five percent of the stock in my company with a high price. That alone is amazing" Akashi complimented Hazami again.

"Because I saw the benefits in investing with your company" Hazami said with a sickeningly sweet smile that made Akashi closed his eyes for a moment. Before he opened it again to continue his façade while he confirmed the hearing device in his ear has been activated when he heard Kuroko was cussing and cursing him.

-x-

"How can he bring me to this restaurant with a great food and forcing me to wear this dress? Then he told me to be locked up in the bathroom and hacked into a pervert cell phone? And he told me that if he said the word Vanilla Milkshake I should have gone to the bathroom and started to assemble these devices. Why Milkshake? It is the best drink in the world" Kuroko mumbled while she heard Kise laughed nervously from the hearing device in her ear.

"Sorry Kurokocchi, this Hazami girl has one of the oldest technologies I have ever encountered and we need to hack the information while we were in that phone wireless range." Kise said nervously.

"I know, but I didn't understand why I should act like his date when I could act like a stranger and also cope up in this bathroom" Kuroko was not happy while she set up a few equipment that Akashi had prepared for this mission.

"But you two are—"."Say one more words and I would cancel the new hard drive you ordered yesterday" Kuroko cut him off harshly. Kise went silent and he decided to be focusing on the task in front of him rather than continuing his word and letting Kuroko to canceled the order of his beloved new hard drive. He heard Kuroko was silent and she sound of various clicking noise coming from the devices before he heard one last click and Kuroko said "it's done Kise-kun"

"That was fast Kurokocchi" Kise said before he went to type something on the other computer on his left.

"I have been doing this for two years. Now tell me what Akashi actually asked you to do tonight" Kuroko said when she clearly knew Akashi has been listening to her conversation with Kise.

"Well this Hazami wanted to invest in Akashicchi's company but there were several rumors that her family was into illegal stuff."

"Illegal as in?

"She involved in human trafficking. That's why Aominecchi went to Somalia last week to investigate whether that information is true or not" Kise told her. Kuroko closed her eyes before she continued to check the data she received from Hazami's phone and look for proves that she was indeed a dangerous person for Akashi.

_BAAM_

"what was that?' she heard Kise said. it was loud enough for Kise to hear, and it made Kuroko worried about what happened outside the bathroom.

"Kise-kun, am I done in here?"

"Yeah, don't worry about the devices. Someone will clean them up when we are done" Kise told her. Kuroko nodded and she went to grab the knife that were hidden in her thigh and she opened the door slightly to saw several men brought lots of guns and was blocking her potential exit.

"Kise-kun, can you look into the camera in this restaurant and tell me how many people with gun in there? Also the shortest way for me to get to where Akashi's is" Kuroko watched the situation carefully and tried to thought of the possible plan this group have.

"I could but, they brought gun? I thought that restaurant is a high-class one! Where were the securities that should have been guarding the entrance" Kise told her.

"I believe it might have something to do with Hazami" Kuroko closed the door before she looked back at the device and saw few suspicious messages. One of those messages confirmed her fear. But before she could said anything to Kise, the bathroom door was opened and she instantly put the devices in its hiding place before she acted like she was surprised when someone opened the door to the toilet

"Look, I found a pretty creature in here" one of the robber said. Kuroko acted like she was scared and let the robber pull her arm until she had left the bathroom.

"You thought you could hide in the bathroom?" the other robber pull her hair to take a good look on her face.

"Kurokocchi, there are ten of them" Kuroko could hear from the devices in her ear. _Yeah, I see eight of them. Where are the other two? _ She thought.

"Let go of me!" she heard Hazami's screamed and one of the robber brought her out from the VIP room. But there were no sign of Akashi and she instantly looked around the room and saw Akashi wasn't there.

"Boss, we are missing our target" she could hear one of the robbers whispered. _Target? Who? _

"Just take all the expensive thing you could find and all the good-looking girls. They both could give us lots of money'" the leader said. Then he pulled Kuroko and the other three girls to the other side of the restaurant. But one of the customers tried to stop him by hitting the robber in the face. Kuroko could see one of the robbers raised his gun and she knew she had no choice but to fight the ten of them with just one knife in her thigh.

At first, she hit the guy who had been holding her with her elbow. When she finally freed her hand from him, she took the knife she had in her thigh and started to slash the robber who tried to shoot the customer. He fell down immediately with so much blood pouring from the wound in his neck.

"Get her!" she heard one of the robber said. She prepared to take them all when she saw one of the robbers got shot down by someone.

"I don't understand why you made a big fuss over one tiny female" Kuroko heard the one who shot the robber said. She saw the tall male with his tanned skin that was familiar to her. He used a dark blue collared shirt and formal pants and shoes that made him look like a secret agent from the movie, if it's not for his scary face. "cih, why were you using a dress like that if you have a tiny breast" he said after he take a look at Kuroko and her outfit.

"Shut Up!" Kuroko was so embarrassed by her outfit. Her evening gown that used to be on her knee length was now few inches above her knee and she forget that she had take off her jacket when she was in the bathroom, which left her with a tiny strap on her shoulder. It was a good thing her long teal colored hair covered the front side of her gown or she wouldn't stop hearing perverted comment from Aomine. "Give me a gun, Aomine" she ordered

"I never noticed that you have a good leg" Aomine said while he calmly looked at his jacket. "I only brought one gun. Maybe you could distract their attention by lifting up—"Kuroko threw both of her shoes to Aomine's face to stop him from continuing his perverted statement.

"Remind me to kill you after I kill these bastards" was the only thing she said before she ran to attack the other robber. She run before jumped on the back of one robber and slashed his neck while she used that man body as a shield when one of the robbers tried to shot her. She threw the knife she had been holding to the robber's chest and she run to retrieve the knife from that robber's chest.

Kuroko heard Aomine manage to shoot three of those robbers by the way they grunted after the sound of a gun being fired from where Aomine was standing. She was about to slashed the third man before someone grabbed her hand and stole the knife from her. He threatened her by holding her knife on the front side of her neck.

"Put down your gun" he ordered Aomine. "Or I will kill this girl"

"How can you get captured? Oi Tetsumi" Aomine said after he dropped his gun to the floor and kick it away from him when he saw the robber really wouldn't hesitate to slash Kuroko's neck.

"Shut up! This is not what I had signed for. Now you should help me escape or I will kill her" the robber said while he nudge Kuroko to walk but she refused and held steady in her place. This clearly angered the robber. "Move! You stupid bitch-"

_Splash _

Kuroko felt the robber that hold her had let go of her body. She felt something splattered on her face and she lifted her hand up to saw blood in her face. She looked up to see Akashi was walking to where she was standing and he give the coat he had on his hand to her.

"Satsuki, you did a good job" Akashi said to someone on his hearing device.

"It was a good thing Tetsu-chan is short. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to shot his head" Kuroko could hear a female voice in her ear. Then she frowned when she heard the word 'short'

"Satsuki-chan! I am not that short" she protested. All she got was a giggled coming from her hearing devices.

"Let's leave and let Shintaro clean the mess" Akashi told them. They all agreed except for Kuroko who was still in anger after she heard Momoi called her short.

-x-

"I am sorry about what happened yesterday, Akashi-sama. I wouldn't think that someone would rob that restaurant" Hazami said when she entered Akashi's office the next day.

"Are you sure about that, Hazami-sama?' Akashi said in a cold voice. Hazami was surprised when he saw the cold look in Akashi's eyes. She also felt fear and the need to escape from the situation. Somehow the Akashi that she saw right now radiating a different aura than Akashi on the night before.

"I didn't have anything to do with that robbery. If that's what you implied"

"Your family didn't have the money to buy and investment in my company. Also I don't need someone who was involved in human trafficking to be working as my partner" Akashi stood up from his chair and went to look at Hazami.

"What are you saying Akashi-sama? I wasn't involved in any trafficking" Hazami started to take a step back. Then the door to Akashi's office was opened to revealed Midorima with a pink haired woman that brought a large map on her hand.

"Because of you, I have to go to Somalia for a week and I have to sleep with lots of mosquitoes in the forest. Do you know mosquitoes were bad for your skin?" the pink haired woman said to Hazami. She stepped aside to let several men in formal jacket entered Akashi's office. Then they grabbed Hazami's hand and handcuffed her hand.

"What is this? I did nothing wrong!" Hazami screeched when she was pulled out by the man. "Akashi-sama! What is the meaning of this?" Hazami kept screaming until the agents had pulled her out from Akashi's office. Momoi followed the agent that had been searching for proof that Hazami was involved in trafficking to finished the charge against Hazami and to make sure she wouldn't created anymore problem in the future with the company. While Midorima stayed in Akashi's office to reported on the incident at the restaurant and how hard that was to hide from the local police and to cover that incident as a mere robbery.

-x-

Meanwhile in the afternoon at the other side of the office, Kuroko, who was late because she overslept and it seemed she forgotten to set the alarm and no one come to wake her up in her room. she was in hurry when she saw the clock pointed at 11 when she turn on her phone. She didn't really care at what she was wearing because she was in panic that she couldn't find the key to her motorcycle. She had no choice but to use other public transportation like bus. it was not until she sat in the bus, she realized that she had been using a skirt rather than her usual trouser.

"You use a skirt today?" Aomine said to his partner when she entered the coffee-room

"I was in hurry this morning" Kuroko said while she put her bag on the desk.

"Maybe it was because I told you that you have a great leg?" Aomine teased her again. She wasn't in the mood for Aomine's perverted comments. This time, she went to hit Aomine on his chest but Aomine manage to grab her hand before she could hit him. Kuroko stood up on her toes to grab Aomine's ear after he manage to stop the punch from her left hand.

"you are too slow. And too short too" Aomine told her. Kuroko jumped to reach Aomine's ear. And she put one hand on his shoulder to lift her up while Aomine unconsciously put his arm on her waist to stop her from jumping and grabbing his ear. She had done that before and it wasn't a good experience.

At the same time, the door opened. Akashi and Momoi was walking through that door

"Dai-chan" Momoi gasped. In her point of view, she could see Aomine pulling Kuroko to him and Kuroko was about to kiss Aomine on his cheek. Momoi turned to saw Akashi, who was standing next to her and he didn't look happy too.

"Daiki" Aomine heard Akashi called his name.

"Akashi, you look good today" Aomine tried to start a small talk but he forget that Kuroko still clinging to him. when he realized that he let go of Kuroko and raised his hand. Kuroko just freeze on the spot she was standing to saw the dark aura coming from Akashi. _uh oh _Kuroko thought.

Akashi went to where Kuroko was and he lifted her chin up with his index finger. Kuroko was stunned to saw anger flashed in Akashi's eyes. He clearly ignored Aomine, who was running to hide behind Momoi and focused all of his attention to Kuroko.

"Akashi-kun?" she whispered to him.

-x-

* * *

AN:

I thought it would not be fair if you read a draft story that I started a long time ago to judge whether this story deserve another chapter or not. so here is the fast update: second chapter

please leave a review if you want to see another chapter in this story, since this is my first time writing something like this story .


	3. Carnation Mission part one

Chapter 3

_What would you do if the object of your interest fall in love with someone else?_

_-z-_

_Twelve years ago_

_In her second year of middle school, she was able to get her first boyfriend that was one year older than she was. She never even once greeted to her childhood friend since she saw him at the front gate on her first day attending Teiko Middle School. She had seen him around but she wouldn't talk to him if he wasn't the one to start the conversation._

"_Tetsu-chan. We have been dating for a month. I was wondering-"her boyfriend said when they were walking behind the gym. She was about to go to the basketball gym when her boyfriend insisted to accompany her._

"_Yes?" she asked her boyfriend._

"_I was wondering when I could kiss you." He finished his word. She stopped in her way and she looked back at her boyfriend, she didn't believe at what she just heard. The only reason she accepted this guy because she wanted to forget about her childhood friend and the best way to do that was finding a new boyfriend. _

"_I told you that I don't want any physical intercourse-"she was surprised when her boyfriend pushed her to the wall behind her and he locked his hand with hers._

"_You are cute but when you were this cold, nobody would want to be with you. You are lucky to have someone like me to be with you" he told her. He tightened the hold in her arm to the point it started to hurt her._

"_Let me go" she said. Instead of letting her go, her boyfriend kissed her in the mouth while his hands were groping her body. _

'_Stop, please stop" she begged when he finally stopped kissing her. She could felt tears coming from her eyes. She closed her eyes when she saw the look of lust from her boyfriend's eyes and she didn't want to see what he would do to her. She prepared herself for the worst when suddenly she felt the pressure on her hand were gone. And she opened her eyes to see her boyfriend was on the floor and a red haired male student was standing in front of her._

"_That is my girl! I could do whatever I wanted with her" her boyfriend said while he stood up on his feet._

"_She is not your girl anymore the moment she resist you" she heard the red haired male student told her boyfriend. "I would report this to the teacher if you didn't get out of my sight right now" _

"_cih! She is not that interesting anyway. I just dated her because she was always invisible and alone in the class. She was pitiful and I am glad to get rid of her." her boyfriend said before he left her. She realized tears were coming in her eyes and she was sobbing uncontrollably. His words were affecting her more than she thought it would be. Then she saw the red haired male student turned around and for the first time in one year, she felt truly happy._

_It was him. He was someone that haunted her dream every night. Someone that catch her eyes when they were in the same room. She tough he had forgotten about her. And here he was saving her from the bad boyfriend that was about to ruined her life._

"_Thank you" she whispered to him. She saw he came to where she was and lifted her chin up. She could breathe when his face inched closer to hers and kissed her. It was just a peck on her lips. _

"_Why did you do that?" She whispered to him. She could feel her heart beating faster each time she replayed the kiss in her mind. But when she saw his eyes were flashing dangerously, as if she saw the eyes of a wild beast. _

"_He shouldn't touch something that belongs to me"_

_-x-_

~Present Time~

"Kurokocchi! You should have seen about this dog's video I found in the internet" Kise entered the room while he brought his table PC. In his hand He froze when he entered the room and saw the atmosphere was so thick that a knife wouldn't be able to cut through it. He saw Aomine was hiding behind Momoi. And Akashi was on the other side of the room with Kuroko standing very close to him. Akashi looked at Kuroko for one last time before he turned to look at Kise. And his hand still hold Kuroko's chin upward.

"Ryota" Akashi said the blond name.

"Yes" Kise said before he also went to hide behind Momoi.

"Why are you also hiding?" Aomine whispered to the blond.

"Akashicchi is scary" Kise whispered back.

"I will have some guests and I want the three of you to go in my place to greet them" Akashi told them. His eyes were looking at the two male who were hiding behind Momoi.

"Yes!" Kise and Aomine said at the same time. Momoi chuckled when she saw the two men that were feared by the society was now a whimpering like a scared puppy.

"Then we will be getting ready to meet this guest. Please excuse us" Momoi bowed down and exited the room. Instantly, Aomine and Kise run ahead of her when she had opened the door. She chuckled before she closed the door on her way out.

"Akashi-kun?" Kuroko asked him with her eyes looking deeply into his eyes.

"Don't forget about your position Tetsumi. I wouldn't appreciate you getting closer to another male in this office" Akashi told her. She sighed before she removed Akashi's hand that was on her chin and walk to the coffee machine and prepared a coffee for her.

"I didn't mean to make you angry. I was just playing around with Aomine" Kuroko said apologetically before she prepared another coffee. She gave the first coffee she just made to Akashi. "Who is this guest that you don't want me to meet?"

"That's none of your business" Akashi answered before he took a sip from his coffee.

"One of the descriptions in my job was to know everyone who would be involved with you. And I mean this as your employee" Kuroko raised her own coffee and drank it and she still hadn't heard any answer from him she saw he was looking at his coffee before he took a drink from his the cup in his hand.

"You shall not meet with this person." Akashi said with a tone that made Kuroko felt chill to her bone. But she refused to bow down to his unreasonable order.

"Yeah, I know your orders are absolute" Kuroko said sarcastically before she continued "and I will find out about it sooner or later" But all she got was a devilish smile from Akashi before he went to lift her chin up once again and kissed her in the mouth. In panic she let go of the coffee in her hand and that coffee got splattered all over her skirt.

"Thank you for the coffee" he whispered to her before he left her with a coffee stains on her skirt and on the floor that she definitely would need a long time to clean.

-x-

"So who is this guest we should meet?" Aomine asked Momoi when the two of them has been waiting in the meeting room.

"It is the Seirin Agency. They requested to meet with Akashi-kun about the current matter of—" Momoi shuffling through the papers in her hand before she stopped at the last paper "this is ridiculous"

"What is?" Aomine said lazily.

"They wanted us to investigate the homicidal maniac around the city. The victim would be young women in their twenties with long hair." Momoi read the description she had on her hand then she flipped the paper she had before she gritted her teeth. Aomine saw this and he snatched the paper from her hand to read it.

"What is this? They want us to do the dirty work for them?" Aomine crushed the paper in his hand.

"Dai-chan! That is an important paper" Momoi scolded. But Aomine only threw that paper to the trash bin at the end of the room. It went inside that trash bin perfectly even when Aomine just threw that paper away recklessly. "I need to print that paper again" Momoi frowned and he hit Aomine's shoulder slightly.

"This is why Akashi didn't want to meet them?"

"Well, considering the last time they asked us to do their dirty job, Kise got kidnapped and Tetsu-chan had to go and save him and it ended up with the three of you in hospital. I don't think Akashi want Tetsu-chan to be anywhere near Seirin" Momoi said. Aomine cringed when he the incident and the look on Akashi's face when he was told that Kise, Aomine and Kuroko were in hospital.

"Ah right. Then we could as well didn't accept the job from them"

"We can't do that! They are the reason why we weren't in prison until now and we have signed a deal with them saying that we would help them doing the jobs that they couldn't finish" Momoi told him with the sour face. She saw Aomine looked confused and at loss at what she just said.

"We have done a job for them? When?"

"Did you ever read the documents I sent to you before every mission?" Momoi was at loss with Aomine.

"ah, Tetsu gave me clear briefing rather than those complicated stuff you gave to me" Aomine said lazily.

"Ahomine! You stupid AHOMINE! Do you know how important it is to understanding every detail in a mission?" Momoi said while she punched the man seating next to her.

"Come on! I always get the mission done even when I didn't read those boring paper you gave to me. Why this should be any difference?" Aomine grab Momoi's hand to stop her before she could punched him .

"You could get killed! What if the mission didn't go as it was planned? There would always be some complication in every mission that—"."Blah blah. I get it" Aomine stopped Momoi from continuing her explanation and that made Momoi even angrier.

"What are you two doing? The client is about to come" Midorima said while he entering the room. Momoi took a deep breath before she calmed herself by counting one to ten in her head. She almost went to hit Aomine to make him realized that every mission has its own danger.

"Where is Tetsu-chan?' Momoi asked Midorima when she saw that Kuroko was not in the room with them when she was supposed to be the first one to arrive in the room. She saw Midorima put his lucky item of the day on top of the desk in front of him. It was a purple carnation flower that he put is a small glass vase.

"It is a rare thing to see your lucky item to be such a beautiful flower" Momoi commented when she picked up the vase and smell the fresh flowery scent from that flower.

"Kuroko will not be joining with us on this mission" Midorima said, he completely ignored Momoi's comment about his lucky item for the day. Momoi stopped to sniff at the flower while Aomine look at Midorima as if he just said that he would stop watching Oha Asa every morning before he went to the office.

"What do you mean Tetsu will not be joining us? I thought Satsuki said that the mission from Seirin always the most troublesome one" Aomine protested. But Midorima look even more troubled and glared at the tanned male before continuing with "Also, Kise will not be joining us for this mission"

"WHAT?" Momoi went to stand on her feet after she heard such unpleasant news from Midorima. For them to do a mission without Kuroko would be hard. Kuroko's invisibility was their trump card at assassination and when she attacked several people at once. And also having Kise not working with them would raised the difficulty of the mission to another level that might even a professional soldiers cried.

"Akashi's order" Midorima said with an irritated tone. Momoi and Aomine sighed heavily and decided to not complaining further.

They knew better than to went against Akashi's order..

-x-

At the other side of the building, Kise was faced with a smiling Akashi in his office and a frowned Kuroko standing next to him. Kuroko was definitely not happy that she had to use Momoi's trouser that was too long for her and she had to throw the skirt she used before because the coffee stain won't come off. And because Momoi's trouser was a little bit too long, she had to use a pair of twelve centimeters stiletto shoes that she also borrowed from Momoi.

"Ryota, I believed I have asked you to greet this guest of mine in the meeting room on the fifth floor" Akashi said to Kise. Kise stopped what he was just doing and turned to look at the suspiciously happy Akashi and he had a feeling this would not end in his favor.

"I thought Momocchi and Aominecchi were already on their way to meet this guest?"

"You will be meeting with different guest. Tetsumi will tell you all the details about this guest of mine" Akashi said. Kuroko went to give Kise a flash drive and Kise went to see what's inside it. He clicked on the only folder in that drive and he went paled instantly after seeing the picture of a young male in his early thirty with his magenta colored hair and brown colored eyes in his computer.

"Akashi, do I have to meet with this 'guest' of yours?" Kise gulped at the word guest when he asked Akashi about it.

"is there a problem, Ryota?"

"Not at all. I will be happy to meet this guest of yours" Kise said in an overly cheery voice when he saw the threatening look in Akashi's eyes.

"Good. I will expect another excellent performance for this job" Akashi said before he left Kise's office.

"Kurokocchi, why do I have to meet with this guy? He is weird and obsessed with me" Kise wailed at the teal haired girl that was standing in front of me.

"It's just in your opinion Kise-kun. Suzuki-sama was touching your hair because you have a leaf on your hair" Kuroko told him when they were on their way to the fifth floor.

"But he also strokes my cheek after he got the leaf! Akashicchi must be angry with me for what happened this afternoon" Kise just realized that it might be a punishment method for him from Akashi.

"Kise-kun" Kuroko reminded him when they have arrived at the meeting room in the fifth floor. Kise was whining and complaining all the way from his office in the sixth floor to the meeting room in the fifth floor and Kuroko already had enough of that.

"Sorry Kurokocchi" Kise finally stopped complaining and opened the door for Kuroko and himself to saw Suzuki Daito in the room with a female companion seating next to him.

"Good Evening Suzuki-sama" Kuroko bowed slightly as a sign of her respect to the male in front of her. Kise also following Kuroko while he sneak a glance at the male in front of him.

"Good Evening." Suzuki answered.

"I am sorry that Akashi-sama will not be joining us today." Kuroko said apologetically to Suzuki and his female companion.

"That's okay Kuroko-san. I was informed by Akashi-sama before I arrived here. "Suzuki said to Kuroko and then he turned to introduce the female that was standing next to him. "This is Suzuki Haruna, she is my wife"

"My name is Kuroko Tetsumi, this is Kise Ryota."

"It's nice to see you Kuroko-san, Kise-san" Haruna told them.

"We would like to give you a short presentation about our new product and we were hoping Akashi-sama would be interested to buy this newest security program" Suzuki said while he looked at Kise. "That's why I was glad when Akashi-sama informed me that Kise-san would be the one to judge the value of this new program. I would love to hear Kise-san's opinion about this"

-x-

On the other meeting room in the tenth floor, Midorima and Momoi facing a difficulty that they wished Kuroko was there to help them. The brown haired girl from Seirin stood up in front of them and Momoi really wished that she could punch this girl's face.

"You never told us that this homicidal maniac already got a military training! Do you know how dangerous that would be to our team? We are paid to work as personal guard not a killing machine" Momoi shouted to her.

"You have no choice but to oblige to this request or Seirin Agency wouldn't cooperate with you to cover all of your dirty work from the public eyes. I wonder what your boss would have to say in that matter" the brown haired girl said with an agitated smile on her face.

"Riko, we are asking for their help, be nice to them" a taller brown haired male who was seating next to the female with her short brown hair tried to calm her down.

"Aida Riko-san, I have no choice but to declined this job offer. If you haven't forgotten that the last time you asked for our help, three of our member was hospitalized." Midorima said to the brown eyed female in front of him.

"What are you trying to say?" Riko asked carefully.

"What Midorin were trying to say that if we accepted your offer, we would not have adequate number of people to catch this homicidal maniac" Momoi said with a frown on her face.

"There are five of you; I think that would be more than enough to capture one person. Even if this person could do Karate and Judo" Riko told Momoi with a smirk on her face.

"B-cup leader, here is the problem. Akashi would not let Kise and Tetsumi to be anywhere near you. And Murasakibara is somewhere around the world because he was asking for a holiday one month ago. If you couldn't give us more people that actually skilled enough to be working with us. We have to refused " Aomine finally said. He was tired hearing the two females in the room fighting and shouting to each other.

"B-cup?" Riko shouted. There was a faint red in her cheek and she crossed her arms over her chest while glaring at Aomine.

"hai hai everyone please calm down. You were saying that if we gave you few people extra people, you would agree on this job?" the brown haired male said. He saw Momoi Midorima and Aomine nodded at the same time.

"then, If I and this person joined the team, you would still do this job?' he gave Momoi two brown folders from his bag. Momoi opened that folder and saw it was a complete biography about this brown haired male. On the other folder was another complete biography about his male companion.

"Kiyoshi Teppei. You were a specialist in Field Artillery. And this other male, Kagami Taiga, he was part of Special Force Agent" Momoi shuffled through the documents before she closed the folder and put it back on the table in front of her. "This should be enough. We will accept this job"

"We would be meeting in Seirin Agency office tonight. We already got the whereabouts of this man and we hope that tonight will be the end of this case" Riko said.

"if you have a former special force agent on your team, why you need to ask for our help?' Aomine asked to Riko. But his eyes were cold and a chilling aura could be felt from him.

"Kagami-kun partner was badly injured when we tried to capture this maniac." Riko sadly said.

"Satsuki, I am going to have fun catching this Hiroshi Kyouhei" Aomine said excitedly when he read the folder containing the information about this killer. Momoi was worried about the outcome from this job. Aomine always love to challenge someone stronger than he was and Kuroko would not be there with them to control Aomine's wild nature when he hunted someone.

_I hope nothing bad will happen in this job _Momoi thought. .

-x-

_They were testing the new security program from Suzuki's company and that program almost breached into the company secret files, if it's not for Kise who realized that Suzuki's new security program was actually a very active virus. The woman, who was introduced as Suzuki's wife was actually a hired killer. Kuroko saw the hidden knife she had hidden in her skirt and almost stab Kise in the chest with the said knife if it's not for Kuroko who threw one of her twelve centimeters stiletto heels that was aimed to hit the woman's forehead. Then Kuroko slide over the table and strangled the woman until she was unconscious._

"_Kurokocchi, help me" Kise screamed when she saw Suzuki went to where Kise was with a small knife in his hand._

"_Why were you ignoring me Ryota-kun? I have sent you many emails to show you how much I love you and now you were getting close to this woman" Suzuki said before he swing his knife to Kise. Kuroko take off her other stiletto heels and threw that at the back of Suzuki's head. Suzuki fell down instantly to the floor. And Kise went to kick the knife away from the unconscious Suzuki._

"Kurokocchi! Thank you for saving my life" Kise went crying and hug Kuroko while the police came to arrest Suzuki in the meeting room thirty minutes after Kise had reported to the police. Kuroko felt something was wrong when Midorima should be the one 'cleaning' this kind of mess. And yet, they involved the police.

"Kise-kun. Why aren't we informing Midorima-kun about this?" Kuroko asked her teammate with a serious expression on her face.

"Midorimacchi emailed me that they have important job tonight and Akashicchi also emailed me to just call the police when I asked him on how to deal with Suzuki." Kise told Kuroko while he searched for the email Midorima has sent him while he was busy recovering the company server and Kuroko was also busy to gave her testimony to the police officer. Kise showed the email to Kuroko.

"What about Satsuki and Aomine?" Kuroko asked again. She gave the tablet PC back to Kise while they were visiting Kuroko's office.

"They have left the office at four this afternoon. Midorimacchi also left the office at four" Kise said when he checked his tablet PC.

"That's weird. Midorima would never leave the office before seven in the evening" Kuroko said when she saw Kise's tablet PC.

"Where do you plan to go, Kurokocchi?' Kise asked her when she had grabbed her jacket and was about to leave her office room.

"I am going to ask Akashi-kun about this" Kuroko said before she run to the fifteenth floor, which is where Akashi's office were located. Kise tried to catch up with her, but Kuroko was a fast runner even with her small body. And Kise had to wait for the next elevator when he failed to catch up with Kuroko.

"Akashi" Kuroko said in hurry when she had arrived at the fortieth floor and opened the door to his room. It was and the only person in that floor was Akashi and he looked like he was still had a long way before finishing the day by the amount of folders on top of his desk.

"What job did you assigned to Momoi, Midorima and Aomine?" she asked Akashi.

"You don't need to know. " Akashi said coldly. His eyes were flashing in anger and Kuroko had to take a step back when she saw the anger in his eyes. But she saw something deep within the anger in his eyes.

"You are worried about them" Kuroko said. She took a seat at the chair in front of Akashi and watched him finishing his job. None of them said single words until they heard the door to Akashi's office was opened.

"Kurokocchi! Bad news" Kise run to barge into Akashi's office while helping the wounded Aomine to walk into Akashi's office. "When the door to the elevator was opened I found Aominecchi inside it and there was blood in the elevator" Kise was at panic with a wounded Aomine next to him.

"Tetsumi" Aomine tried to stand but the blood coming from Aomine's thigh was soaking through his jeans. "Akashi, I don't care if you are going to punish me. But I need Tetsu to catch that damn bastard"

"Kise-kun, please put Aomine-kun on the sofa over there" Kuroko pointed at the sofa in the waiting room. She run again to Akashi's office and she rummage through the shelf before she spotted the first aid kit at the second shelf that was too high for her. She tried to grab it but she saw another hand already grab the box.

"Thank you" she grabbed the box and run to where Aomine was. She someone has cut Aomine's jeans and it made it easier for her to treat the wound. Aomine had tied his thigh to prevent more blood from coming out. It looked like he was stab with a knife and Aomine had pulled out the knife even when he knew he shouldn't have done that. it was a good thing that the wound wasn't that deep. But he still needed to go to the hospital and get that wound a few stitches.

"What happened?" Kuroko asked while she opened the first aid box to pull out a large amount of cotton. She poured some antibiotic to the cotton and placed it on top of Aomine's wound. Aomine winced when Kuroko tried to clean the wound.

"We were working with Seirin Agency to catch the Homicidal maniac that loves to hunt long haired women. This Kagami just lost it when he saw this killer and he screwed up the whole plan by jumping out from hiding and attacked the bastard" Aomine tried to not screaming out from the pain while Kuroko put some antiseptic solution on a thick gauze pads and replaced the cotton with the gauze pads.

"Hold this" Kuroko told Aomine while she searched for a long bandage in inside the first aid kit.

"Why are you here and not in Seirin's" Akashi asked. He was looking at the wound before he took the bandage from Kuroko's hand and rolled it on Aomine's thigh.

"I didn't want to be anywhere nears that idiot from Seirin. I might accidentally kill him. Because of him, the killer got Satsuki abducted."

"Will Momocchi be okay?" Kise asked with worry when he watched the whole time Kuroko treated Aomine's wound. He saw Akashi was texting someone before he closed his phone and turned to look at Kise.

"Kise, try to find anything about this killer and I want it in the next ten minutes" Akashi told him. Kise instantly run to the elevator to go back to his room and search for as much information as he could about this killer.

"Tetsumi, my office. Daiki, you should stay in here"

"I am going to save Satsuki" Kuroko said once they have entered Akashi's office. She saw Akashi was silent for a moment before he took a deep breath after seeing the expression in Kuroko's eyes. He knew Kuroko would go to Seirin whether he approved it or not.

"On one condition" he stated. Kuroko urged him to continue his term. "I would like to meet with this guy from Seirin."

"You will not like this guy, Akashi" Aomine said. He winced when Akashi helped him to stand.

"We will be dropping you to the hospital before paying a visit to Seirin" Kuroko said while she also tried to help Aomine. But she stumbled from Aomine's weight.

"Tetsumi" Akashi reminded her. she sighed and letting go of Aomine's arm.

"Tetsu, you are too short" Aomine commented. Kuroko glared at him before she pushed the button that would bring them to the lobby.

"It's you who were unbelievably tall" Kuroko said to Aomine. She heard Aomine laughed but the look in his eyes, he was worried about Momoi.

"We will save Satsuki-chan. I promised" Kuroko said to Aomine.

"Yeah"

-x-

* * *

my answer to some review(since I couldn't leave a review reply:  
Aztia  
I will try to go back to the first chapter once I have enough courage to re-read it  
thank you for your encouragement. this is my first time to write in this genre. and english is my second language(I was hoping to find someone to edit this story. I have a Beta for my other story, but I prefer to have seperate beta for my story.)  
and Momoi. I made her to be taller than Kuroko in my story(when in real Kurobasu, she is shorter than Kuroko by 5 cm).  
aah.. the reason I made this story was to practice my description detail. so I am hoping you could bear with me .

Endemion  
I hope I could find someone who want to edit this story. because I think, it would be the best to have someone that like this story and edited it. (like I said to Aztia's review comment, I am really working hard to improve my description detail. so why don't I start a story about it rather than reading a 'how to' book)

and thank you for reviewing chapter 1 and two. I hope you also like this chapter(and leave another review for me)

Next chapter:

-who is this Hiroshi Kyouhei? 

-what really happened in the mission with Seirin?

-what would happen to Momoi?


	4. Carnation Mission part two

Chapter 4

disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basket.

-x-

_Twelve years ago_

"_What do you think you were saying?" she wanted to escape but her leg was wobbly and she couldn't move them. Did she hear him correctly? He said that she was his?_

"_You seemed to have forgetten about me?". He studied her expression very carefully before a frowned appeared in his face. "But your eyes were always looking for me. Was it just because I was the subject of your interest? Or was it because you were not sure about me?"_

"_I know it's you. I have been waiting for you but you never greeted me. Not even-" She said but he pressed his index finger to her lips. She stopped talking immediately to watch him. He has grown more mature than he was when he used to be as a kid. His eyes had turned sharper than it was before and he looked better with his short hair. Then she noticed something also changed in his eyes. The pair of red eyes that she loved to see was no longer there._

"_What happened to your eyes?" she unconsciously said to him. She watched him smiled. But not that kind of smile that bring warmth to her heart. It was the kind of smile that made her felt chills to her bone. He had changed. This is not the boy she used to know nor is this the boy that used to play with her in the park._

"_What happened to you?" she asked him again. _

"_Why don't you try to find the answer by yourself?" he told her with a challenging smile before he stood up and walk away from her without turning back to look at her._

_-x-_

_~Present time~_

"Akashi-kun, please drive carefully" Kuroko said when they were on their way to Seirin Agency. She didn't have the guts to look at the speedometer nor the confidence to look at the blurry view in front of her.

"Are you scared, Tetsu?" Akashi said before he turned the car to the right. Kuroko was completely unprepared for the turn. She flew to her left side and had her head hitting Akashi's shoulder.

"I am scared that we would lose our live before we arrived at Seirin's office. What if Akashi-kun lost control of the car and we ended up in hospital with Aomine-kun?" Kuroko mumbled while she nursed the sore spot on her head and come back to her seat and this time she flatten herself into the chair and held into the bottom chair like her life depended on it.

"You underestimating me, Tetsu" Akashi said before the car take a sharp turn and into a complete stop. Kuroko, who finally have the guts to look at the window, saw that they had arrived inside a governmental building complex. She saw Akashi opened the window and presenting his ID to the officers. Kuroko opened her purse and also gave her id to the officer

"I completely forgotten that Seirin was part of the official government" Kuroko said once they had passed the security check up.

"Seirin is one of the secret intelligence services that did dirty work for the government. We used their help to make sure that your team has clean records in exchange of us helping them finishing some of their dirty works."

"I know about the contract, Akashi-kun" Kuroko looked at Akashi with her big blue eyes and a scowl on her face. Akashi stopped into one of the building and he parked his car in the lobby.

"let's go, Tetsumi" Akashi said before he opened his door. Kuroko followed him to the lobby as he stated his business to the security in there.

-x-

"Midorima-kun?' Kuroko asked when she and Akashi had arrived at the sixteenth floor where Seirin's agency office was. Midorima was there while he glared at the red haired male that was almost as tall as he was. that male also have muscular build and Kuroko assumed he was also one of the agent in Seirin.

"Kuroko" Midorima said to acknowledge her presence. "Akashi" he said to the male standing behind Kuroko.

"I just told you. If she didn't try to stop me, I would be able to kill this killer and she wouldn't get abducted" the tall red haired male suddenly said. He looked agitated and in a complete mess with blood in his clothes.

"Shut up. This would end without any injured if you do as we have planned." Midorima turned to look at the male. He raised his hand to punch the male but he felt someone grabbed his hand and stopped it in mid air.

"What is going on in here?" Kuroko, who had stopped Midorima's punch, said to everyone in the room.

"Kuroko-san, Akashi-sama, we wanted to apologize. Because of our mistake, one of your friend got abducted" Kiyoshi said while he bowed down.

"It wasn't our mistake! It was her mistake! She wasn't supposed to try to stop me while I attack that killer" the red haired suddenly shouted.

"Kagami-kun!' The brown haired female, Kuroko remembered her as Aida Riko, shouted at Kagami. She saw Kuroko's cold gaze was looking at Kagami this time and it will not end nicely if Kagami continued his childish act.

"Are you saying that Satsuki's plan was failed because she tried to stop you from doing something unnecessary like killing your own target when the mission clearly stated to catch him alive?" she let go of Midorima's hand and now she was looking at Kagami. Even with her small figure, she was quite scary when she wanted to. Kagami was about to said something else but Kuroko punched his stomach. Kagami grunted while he glared at Kuroko.

"You!" Kagami grabbed the front side of Kuroko's shirt once he had recovered from her punch earlier and he was about to lifted her up when he fell to the ground as he lost his consciousness. Kuroko saw Akashi was standing behind Kagami and he just knocked Kagami out with just one hit to the back of Kagami's neck.

"Can we have a cup of tea and talk about this in the table over there?" the cat like male from Seirin said timidly. He saw the situation has gotten worse after Kagami's little outburst and. It didn't help that Seirin was at fault when they failed to protect the pink haired lady from Seirin.

Kuroko looked at Akashi and she saw Akashi let out a deep sigh before he nodded. "Sure. If you can, please tell me the detail in your view. I have heard the story from Aomine's point of view and I hope you could also give me all the details about this killer that was not in this file" Kuroko pulled out the mission file and give it to Riko.

-x-

_Meanwhile in other part of the city_

"Let go of me" the sound of Momoi Satsuki could be heard inside a big room in the older part of the city. Both of her hand and her legs were tied with a plastic rope and it was hurting her. and the killer currently pacing in front of him with a scared expression on his face.

"Shut up! Why woman like you always hate me? You have to choose for the guy like that blue haired man" the killer said while he panted heavily while grabbing a fistful of his hair. he kept mumbling something that Momoi couldn't hear.

"hey, that's my brother" Momoi lied. _He seemed to be emotionally unstable. Maybe I could use that to escape._ Momoi thought before saying "I always hated him"

"don't lie to me! You two are nothing alike" He stopped pacing and he turned to look at her with his red eyes. Momoi speculated that he might have been drunk or using some kind of drugs. Either way, this might work in her favor if she say the right thing.

"why would I lie to you? He left me to escape by his own" Momoi pretended to sob and she gritted her teeth. And luckily, because of the pain she felt from the pressure in her legs and hands, she could let out a few tears on her eyes.

"no no, he was someone that also had a military training just like me. He would come here and attacked me" the man said in panic. He pulled out a knife from his pocket and pointed that knife to Momoi.

"He won't! he never cares about me. Why do you think he let me protect that red haired man from you. When in fact he could do that on his own" Momoi shouted and she started to sobbing and choking on her tears. "He only care about his girlfriend"

"He dumped you too?" the killer rushed to her side and he hug Momoi.

"Yes. I care about him but all he cares was for his teal haired girlfriend. I just want to kill her" Momoi put the last pieces in her strategy. And she waited for his answer and hoping it was the right one. Then Momoi felt the rope around her hand was loosened and she saw what remain of that rope after the killer had cut the rope.

Only to have it replaced with a handcuff on her hand and her leg.

"do you think I would be fooled by girl like you faking a few tears?" the man slapped Momoi on her face twice and Momoi could felt the metallic taste in her mouth. She saw the blood coming out from her mouth and it dripped into her shirt and pants.

"I hope your friend come to help you tonight. I have few surprise for them" He told Momoi before he slapped her again. This time, Momoi instantly lost her consciousness.

-x-

At the table, Kuroko was seated next to Akashi while Midorima standing next to the two of them. in front of them was Riko, Kiyoshi and dark haired male wearing his glasses Kuroko remembered as Hyuuga.

"we would start by telling what happened when we arrived at the scene" Riko said. Kuroko nodded and she prepared to pick any useful information that she could use to save Momoi.

_FLASHBACK_

_It was 8pm when they have arrived at the place where this killer was. their first plan was to barged inside the place. Aomine and Kagami would be the first one to enter while Kiyoshi and Hyuuga would back them up. Momoi was waiting with Riko few building away behind them since Riko couldn't protect herself. she wasn't train to use gun or any method to defended herself._

"_Satsuki, are you sure this is the right place?" Aomine said to the receiver in his hand. _

"_Of course! According to the data, this should be the place where the killer would be" Momoi said to the receiver. She opened the map in her hand and look closely at where the teams were headed. "And I couldn't even prepared my riffle—wait" Momoi stopped mumbling when she saw something that caught her eyes._

"_Dai-chan, is there a building that was about four story height?" Momoi asked Aomine._

"_hhm… yeah. It is the shortest building in here" she heard Aomine said. Momoi's widened her eyes and she run to find her riffle._

"_Dai-chan, get away from that building!" Momoi said to the receiver while she grabbed her riffle and run to follow them. On her way out, she told Riko to wait in their hiding. _

"_oi Satsuki" Aomine tried to talk to her from the receiver. But he got no answer from her._

"_What's wrong?" Kiyoshi asked Aomine._

"_Satsuki just goes solo. I will be here to wait for her" Aomine said lazily before he leaned on one of the wall._

"_This is not a walk in the park where you could wait wherever you want! We are in the enemies hide out!" Hyuuga clearly annoyed by Aomine's attitude. He acted like this mission, which Seirin must ask for their help, was nothing._

"_Then you wait for Satsuki in here. She is useless unless she already set her riffle somewhere" Aomine look at Hyuuga with his droopy eyes. He waited for Hyuuga to say something but Hyuuga was just being silent and walked ahead of him._

"_I would wait for your friend. You go ahead with Kagami-kun" Kiyoshi said with a smile on his face. "Beside I am also pretty much useless unless I have a tank with me" he said when he saw Aomine was not convinced by him._

"_Fine, but don't let Satsuki into the front line" Aomine gave Kiyoshi one last look before he run to catch up to Kagami. Kiyoshi waved happily to Aomine until he couldn't see him anymore once he had turned on the corner of the road. Kiyoshi look up to the sky for a while he swing the gun in his hand carelessly._

"_You might shot yourself if you keep doing that" Kiyoshi heard someone said to him. he saw a pink haired girl with a long sniper rifle in her hand and she didn't even look exhausted after all the running she had done from their hideout to where Kiyoshi was standing._

"_Momoi-san?" Kiyoshi said to the pink haired girl. if she didn't bring her sniper rifle, Kiyoshi might think she was just a civilian._

"_Kiyoshi-san. Are you waiting for me?" _

"_I volunteered when Aomine-san told me that he wanted to wait for you. I never have guessed you are the one holding the sniper rifle. I thought it would be Midorima-san" Kiyoshi said to her._

"_Midorin would never be in the active field. He was someone who would clear the area and the one who would deal with the officials after our missions. Enough with the small talk, can you run Kiyoshi-san?" Momoi said in a hurry._

"_Sure, but why?" Kiyoshi said. he saw Momoi's eyes turned cold and it was so not what she used to look just a few seconds ago._

"_The only one who could take out the snipers was another sniper" she said before she run again, this time with her full speed. Kiyoshi was having a hard time following her, even when he had the advantages for having longer leg._

_He saw Momoi entered one of the buildings that was two blocks away from their meeting points. And Momoi stopped and turned to look at Kiyoshi. "You could go to the rendezvous point. I will be fine in here"_

"_But this is six hundred meters away" Kiyoshi said in shocked. _

"_Don't worry; this should be enough to take out the other three snipers" _

"_How do you know there are three other? And what if there is someone is this building?"_

"_I just do. Now please choose whether you wanted to follow me or—"."I will follow you" Kiyoshi said firmly. Then she saw Momoi was shocked before she told him "this is a tenth story building and we are not going to use the elevator"_

"_I could handle ten" Kiyoshi was already sweating when he imagine to run up to tenth story building._

_-x-_

"_You are a very healthy girl" Kiyoshi said once he arrived at the roof. He saw Momoi already set up the sniper rifle._

"_I am the only one who could use this sniper rifle for about eight hundred meters. So I have to train so I wouldn't be a burden to my team" Momoi said while she still focused on the rifle lens in front of her._

"_Your team consists of six people, right?' Kiyoshi asked. Momoi asked him to also lie down so the enemy won't spot them._

"_hmm, yeah. Tetsu-chan,Ki-chan,Muk-kun and Dai-chan" Momoi counted with her hand. "why do you ask?"_

"_I was just curious. I am new in Seirin and I was surprised when they put me in the mission with personal guards from other company" Kiyoshi said sheepishly._

"_Ki-chan handles all problem with security and other thing that used computer. Muk-kun was helping me to go to my place and blowing things up. Dai-chan and Tetsu-chan would be the one attacking. And that's left Midorin to clean things up" Momoi explained shortly. Then she used the receiver and calling for her teammate._

"_Satsuki, are you in place?" she heard Aomine's from the receiver._

"_Yeah, listen there might be a surprise attack from the sniper I could only find one of the possible three in the area." Momoi started._

"_yeah, just do your job. I would be the one luring them out. Don't you ever come in here" She heard Aomine said lazily. "Damn, I wish Tetsu was here"_

"_we could pull this out without Tetsu-chan" Momoi said to the receiver. _

"_Who is this Tetsu? Is he Aomine's partner?" Kiyoshi asked her._

"_Tetsu-chan is a she" Momoi said before she turned the rifle to her right side. _

_-x-_

"Then, how did Satsuki ended up getting abducted when she was few building away?" Kuroko interrupted Kiyoshi's story. So far, all she had heard was a god job from Momoi's strategy and her hasn't messed anything up.

"it was after the mission started and Momoi has shot the other snipers down, she heard about the trouble and she went running to where Aomine-san was" Kiyoshi said.

-x-

"_Momoi-san' Kiyoshi tried to catch up to the smaller girl. But she run as if the wind was helping her to run faster. She must have heard something from the receiver and suddenly run from the roof. And the look of her face was a pure panic._

"_Kiyoshi-san. Please inform Aida-san that we need medic. Immediately" Momoi said while she threw the receiver to Kiyoshi and the sniper rifle to the ground. Kiyoshi catch that and when he looked again to where Momoi was, she was gone._

_Momoi was running using all of her power and speed to where Aomine was. She heard Aomine was screaming for Kagami to calm down. and it looked like Kagami went into crazy rampage and he wanted to take revenge for his fallen comrade. _

"_Dai-chan please be safe" Momoi tried to run faster to reach her teammate. When she arrived there, she saw someone wanted to stab Aomine from behind and she jumped to kick the knife away from that guy. _

"_Satsuki! What are you doing here?" Aomine shouted when he saw her on the active field. "get out of here! You won't stand a chance"_

"_We should retreat! He already screwed the plan" Momoi begged to Aomine. When Kagami went all heroic to attack the killer, all of the killer's paid troupe was ready to attack them. With only Aomine and Kagami. They wouldn't stand a chance to fight him._

"_I know that! But I couldn't let him die in here" Aomine said again. Momoi saw the main problem in this mission and her run to save Kagami. He was clearly losing in physical battle with the killer. Momoi went to pull Kagami back, but she made a mistake. When the killer looked at her, someone that was clearly the target of his killing spree, he instantly charged at her with the knife in his hand. He tried to stab Momoi but Aomine was faster than he was. Aomine grabbed the killer hand but he saw that the killer has a big smile on his face. Before he could react, the killer has another knife in his other hand and stabbed Aomine in his thigh._

"_DAI-CHAN!" Momoi screamed. She was at panic and she did the first thing that passed through her mind. She charged into the guy and used her small knowledge about martial arts and drove the killer away from Aomine._

"_Satsuki! Don't be stupid!" Aomine shouted. Kiyoshi arrived at the right time to saw the condition. Momoi was fighting with the killer, Aomine has blood pouring from his thigh and Kagami was stunned. He did the only logical thing to do. He pushed Aomine away from the scene._

"_Kagami-kun! let's retreat" Kiyoshi shouted._

"_Let me go! SATSUKI" Aomine shouted. But all of his effort was pointless when Kiyoshi pushed him away. Then he saw Hyuuga, who just arrived on the scene tried to push Kagami away, just in time for another bullet almost hit his head. _

"_Momoi-san!' Kiyoshi screamed. He saw Momoi was unconscious in the hand of the killer. But he couldn't see any blood coming from her. Then he saw more people come and trying to kill them. He had no choice but to leave Momoi and drag the tanned male away from the scene._

"_Please be safe, Momoi-san" Kiyoshi whispered._

"_She would survive this" Aomine told him while Kiyoshi helped him to walk from the scene._

_-x-_

"I see" Kuroko was silent for a moment. She turned to look at the still unconscious male on the floor and Kiyoshi could see her she was trying so hard to retain her anger. And he also saw the same look from the green haired male next to Kuroko also have the same retained anger from him.

"Midorima-kun. Have you called Takao-kun and asked about Aomine's condition?" Kuroko asked Midorima.

"He told me that Aomine tried to leave the hospital. But he already know how to handle him" Midorima told her. but there was something scary from the way they had this conversation.

"Good. Make sure Aomine stayed in the hospital until we finished this job." Kuroko said while she looked at the red haired male that was seated next to her.

"Shintaro, called Kise to bring us one HK416, seven pair of the longest range hearing devices he had and called Atsushi. He should be arriving here in less than two hour. I will send a helicopter to get him from Hokkaido" Akashi ordered Kise.

"Make that eight pair, Kise-kun" Kuroko said before Kise run to finished his task. "The last one was for Kagami-kun" Kuroko said when Akashi gave her the questioning glance for the extra devices she asked.

" Tetsumi" Akashi said in a warning tone.

"I am going Akashi-kun. I wouldn't sit here and watching my friend dying" Kuroko said firmly and she saw Akashi's heterochromatic eyes were flashing dangerously and one wrong move she might bring out the wrong Akashi to the surface. "Beside that HK416 rifle was for you, right?" she asked softly.

" Aida Riko, prepare what's inside this list in one hour" Akashi gave her a long piece of papers. She didn't realize when Akashi had written this list. She read the list and she saw two things that catch her eyes.

"We couldn't afford these two things" Riko said when she pointed at the two item on the lists.

"You are the daughter of the head Ministry of defense. I am sure you could do something about those" Akashi told her. Riko's face was full of surprised when he told her about the biggest secret she kept.

_This man is dangerous _Riko thought.

"I will try. But don't expect anything more from this" Riko said before she run out of the room to find all the things she needed on the list.

"I think I should wake him up" Kuroko said to herself when she looked at Kagami. But she was stopped by Akashi before she even moved from her position.

"Kiyoshi Teppei, I believe you are capable of handling your teammate" Akashi said. It wasn't a question to him. It was like a command from him to Kiyoshi.

"I could wake him up and make him ready before the briefing started" Kiyoshi said. It seemed the answer was acceptable as Akashi pulled Kuroko away from the unconscious Kagami to the next room.

"Akashi-kun" Kuroko said to him once they have entered the different room. She saw Akashi was looking at her intently and she was feeling uncomfortable under his gaze.

"Tetsumi, what do you think about cutting your hair?" Akashi suddenly said. Kuroko instantly grab her hair and she stepped back to get away from Akashi.

"No" Kuroko glared at Akashi. She was glaring at him just like a little puppy glaring at the big bad wolf in front of her. Akashi took one step to her place and Kuroko also took one step back away from him.

"Tetsumi" Akashi called for her.

"My answer still no!" Kuroko said firmly.

"This killer has a fetish for long hair woman."."I wouldn't cut my hair." Kuroko said firmly. Akashi saw the determination in her eyes and he knew how stubborn Kuroko could be when she had that look on her face.

"Now please excuse me. I needed to help Aida-san to prepare for this job" Kuroko said. But her exit door was behind Akashi and she still glared at him when he hadn't even move from his spot. "Akashi-kun, I would find a way to hide my hair. Please let me keep my hair just like this" Kuroko begged him when he has yet to move from his position.

"Akashi-sama, I've found the wig you've put in your list. It was a good thing one of our employee love to play dress up" Riko said when she entered the room unannounced. "Did I disturb something?" she said when she saw the serious expression between Kuroko and Akashi in that room. "I just put this here and I will be continuing to find the other item on the list" Riko said and she put the wig in the chair next to Akashi and left in hurry.

"You have planned this" Kuroko said in an annoyed tone. She gets even annoyed when she saw the knowing smirk forming in the corner of Akashi's mouth. She walked passed him and snatched the black haired wig. It was a very boyish like wig and when she wore that, she saw she looked like a little boy with a pair of big blue eyes when she saw herself in the mirror rather than being a twenty seven years old woman.

"Please don't smile like that Akashi-kun" Kuroko said when she looked to Akashi who was standing behind her from the reflection in the mirror.

"You do look like a little boy." Akashi commented her new look.

"Akashi-kun please stop teasing me" Kuroko was clearly unhappy when she saw that Akashi was still looking at her, but this time he approached her from behind and put his hands around shoulder and pulled her close to him. Kuroko's face was already turned into the same color as a ripe tomato and her big blue eyes got even bigger when she widened her eyes as Akashi put his head on top of her shoulder. She saw Akashi closed his eyes and stayed like that for a little while until someone carelessly opened the door and Kuroko could saw another red haired male entering the room from the reflection in the mirror in front of her.

"I wouldn't want to be—eh?" Kagami stopped talking when he saw two male was hugging each other in front of him. One of them was having a very red face while the other one has a serene expression in his face. Then Kagami saw the other red haired male opened his eyes, this time Kagami could felt a chilling aura coming from him and when he looked at Kagami, Kagami was sure he could die at the very moment if he didn't act carefully around this male.

"I am looking for Kuroko, is she here?" Kagami asked. Kuroko tried to escape from Akashi's by removing his hand from her shoulder and she turned around to look at Kagami.

"I am Kuroko"

"Eh? Kiyoshi said you are a girl. Was he mistaken a little boy like you as a girl?" Kagami asked with the look pure of surprised on his face when he finally got to see Kuroko clearly. But that didn't make Kuroko happy when he thought she was a male.

"I am a female!" Kuroko said while she removed the black wig she was wearing. Her long teal colored hair flew freely. Her face was slightly flushed with her big blue eyes were fully widened and it was the cutest thing Kagami ever saw and this also made him blush.

"Kuro-chin?" someone come again to the room. This time, it is a tall purple haired male with a bored expression on his face. In his hand was three pack of dango and he was eating another pack of dango in his hand.

"Murasakibara-kun"

"Kuro-chin playing dressed up again?" Murasakibara asked when he saw the black wig on her hand.

"Yes! Now we should go and find Midorima" Kuroko walk passed Akashi and Kagami while she pushed Murasakibara with her as she escape the two red haired male in the room.

"Kuro-chin? Why are you pushing me?" Murasakibara asked, even when he let himself get pushed by Kuroko.

"I don't want to be anywhere near Akashi-kun when he had that look on his face" Kuroko mumbled. Murasakibara didn't seem to hear what Kuroko just said. And he kept on munching the dango in his hand.

"Do you want this, Kuro-chin?" Murasakibara offered one of the dango pack to Kuroko.

"Thank you Murasakibara-kun" Kuroko accepted the dango and started to unpacked that and eat it with Murasakibara in the room where Riko and her team was busy trying to find everything they need for saving Momoi and catching the Serial Killer.

* * *

-Next chapter:

-will Momoi be saved?

-x-

AU:

finally chapter 4. personally it took a long time to made this chapter(at first I just want to end this as two chapter. but I ended up making three chapter for this "Carnation mission") and it is the first chapter I made while thinking "what did I just do? maybe I should change this" then I freak out when the story just dragging on and on.

anyway,what do you think? and I need Beta reader to edit this story!

and please...please leave a review for this chapter.


	5. Carnation Mission part three

Part 3

* * *

Fun fact: Carnation flower has several meaning.

Yellow carnation means Rejection. Red Carnation means Admiration

* * *

-x-

"Why is Akashi looking at Kagami like he is our target?" Midorima asked when they were preparing to go to save was already wearing her wig and she also used a hat on top of that wig so it stayed intact when she had to run. Well it was Riko's idea, she went crazy after she saw Kuroko used her wig and suddenly Riko rushed back to her office and came back with beret hat on her hand.

"That was just your imagination, Midorima-kun" Kuroko said while she prepared the gun holder inside her coat.

"Kuroko, you do realize Akashi brought a rifle with him and he volunteered to join this rescue mission" Midorima stated again. Kuroko knew what Midorima implying, Akashi might ended up shooting Kagami if he messed the mission or if Kagami's action would made Murasakibara or Kuroko ended up in the hospital and once she finished her preparation. She went to where Akashi was standing with a bag of long rifle in his hand and a phone in his other hand.

"Akashi-kun" Kuroko called him. Akashi turned to look at her and he put the phone in his hand back into his pocket.

"What do you need, Tetsumi?"

"I don't want Akashi-kun to join this mission." Kuroko told him firmly.

"Then do you have any better ideas on who should be using this?" Akashi said and he pulled up the big bag on his hand. He saw Kuroko had been eyeing the bag in his hand and a small smile appered at the corner of his lips.

"Murasakibara-kun could use the gun in your place. Akashi-kun should be watching this with Aida-san" Kuroko said while she tried to pull the gun away from him. "Akashi-kun should not get involved directly in this case. This is why you have personal guards, we will rescue Momoi safely". She saw the smile had disappeared from Akashi's face and Kuroko knew she has said the wrong things.

"You are not a mere personal guard. Should I remind you about your position?" Akashi told her while he looked at her intensely.

"What did you mean Akashi-kun? I am one of your guards" Kuroko stuttered in panic. She tried to pull the gun away from him but Akashi still have a tight hold of that gun and he used it to pull her to him.

"I would agree if you also agreed with the end of my deal." Akashi told her. Kuroko have a deep frown on her face. She tried to pull the bag away from Akashi but it still wouldn't budge from Akashi's grip. Kuroko was standing very close to Akashi and if it's not for the bag between them, they would clearly look like they were embracing each other. and it would be bad if the other doubt about her professionalism in her work when they saw her in this position.

"I would agree if Akashi-kun agree to really not joining this mission. You have to go back to your house and acted like this mission never happened" Kuroko said to him.

"Okay then. But this rifle stayed with me" Akashi told her. Kuroko nodded and she let go of the bag immediately. She saw Akashi went to tell Murasakibara about the change in their plan. _That's what the other rifle was for._ Kuroko thought when she saw the long bag Murasakibara has been carried.

-x-

"What did you do to make him agree to back down from this mission?" Midorima asked when they were seated in the same car. Akashi had used his car to go back to his house and that made Kuroko had to use Midorima's car with Murasakibara in the back seat.

"Midorima-kun really wanted to know?"

"Not really. I prefer to keep my job by not prying into your personal life" Midorima answered. Kuroko was about to say something when she suddenly hear a static noise coming from the device in her ear. And it seemed Midorima and Murasakibara also hear the same thing.

"Everyone can you hear me?" the three of them hear Kise from the tiny hearing device in their ear.

"We can hear you loud and clear, Kise" Midorima answered with an annoyed tone.

"Ooh Midorimacchi!" Kise said excitedly before he cleared his throat "I just want to tell you that we would have two channels in this device. Akashicchi told me to make sure you know this before I activated the other channel"

"Why do we need the other channel? We are working with them, not against them" Kuroko asked Kise.

"Because Akashicchi said so" Kise said timidly. Kuroko let out an audible sighed and she saw Midorima also didn't want to continue this matter when Akashi might have something they haven't seen. "And Kurokocchi"

"Yes, Kise-kun?" Kuroko said to the receiver.

"Akashicchi told me to let you know that your wig should stay until you come back to your house. To Murasakibaracchi, proceed with plan 2"

"Plan 2? Got it" Murasakibara answered lazily while he munched a big pack of marshmallow in his hand.

"Don't ruin my car with the trash from your marshmallow" Midorima complained.

"And one last thing for everyone. Akashicchi told me to tell you that while in this mission we are not part of Akashi's family guards therefore if we have to go into the hospital it would be on our money or we should asked Seirin to pay for our bill." Kise said like he read that from the email Akashi might have sent it to him.

The three of them went silent and probably have the same thing in their mind. _Akashi is angry at Seirin._

-x-

"This is what we are going to do. Kuroko and Kagami would enter from the front door once Murasakibara blow up the back door. Teppei and Murasakibara would shoot from the next building to anyone they could have shot. Junpei and Izuki would make sure Momoi could escape unscratched. Both of you would be entering the building from the blow up exit when Teppei declared it safe for you to move." Riko told them.

"Aida-san. I prefer to enter the building before the explosion began as Akashi-kun had ordered." Kuroko said after Riko had finished talking.

"We couldn't do that Kuroko-san. Kagami-kun would protect you if anything happen to you. Also Kagami-kun is an excellent fighter and we were wary of sending a small girl like you by yourself" Riko told her. Kuroko was about to said something else but Riko decided to interfere. "Kuroko-san, you are working as Seirin's employee. I believed that you should agree on our term"

"I understand" Kuroko said dejectedly.

"Is there any question?" Riko asked the others. When she saw none of them had anything to say, she closed the folder in her hands and put it in the table. "Then let's get this mission started."

-x-

"Where am I?" Momoi wondered when she opened her eyes once more. She saw she was still tied and she already lost the feeling from her arms and legs. Also she could taste the blood in her mouth and one of her eyes were swollen by the blurry vision she saw from her left eye.

"you have awaken!" her kidnapper told her. "you are just in time to saw your friend saving you"

"Tetsu-chan would kick your ass" Momoi told him with a big smile on her face. The kidnapper, Hiroshi, was furious. Then he slapped Momoi while he screamed "SHUT UP! I WILL KILL YOUR FRIEND"

"Boss, someone blew up our back door" the henchmen told Hiroshi. Rather than telling the henchmen about what he had to do, Hiroshi shot him in the head.

"KILL THEM! YOU WERE PAID NOT TO BEING BUNCH OF IDIOTS" He screamed at the rest of the henchmen in the room. They were running like their life depended on it and Hiroshi turned his attention back to Momoi. He saw Momoi was laughing despite the injury in her face. it annoyed him and he hit Momoi with his gun until she was unconscious.

"you are lucky that I need you alive"

-x-

"Are you sure you are up to this?" Kagami asked the little girl next to him. Currently they are hiding behind a building that was next to their target. They were waiting for Murasakibara to give them a sign to start their mission. Kagami was using a machine gun in his hand while she saw Kuroko had an automatic gun in her hand and around her waist was a dozen of six inches knifes and one long sword.

"Kagami-kun should not worry about me." Kuroko said when she checked the gun in her hand.

"Look, I don't know how experienced you are but you should stay behind me. This might be dangerous because this guy has beaten Himuro severely" Kagami told her just in time for them to hear a very loud explosive sound as their sign to start the mission.

"Kagami-kun should just concentrate on staying alive" was the last thing Kagami heard before he turned to saw Kuroko was already disappeared. He guessed that she disappeared into the building. _She was fast! _Kagami thought in his head.

Kagami run to follow Kuroko and he entered the building to find Kuroko was already killed three men twice her size and she was about to throw one of the knife in her waist to the male in front of her and that knife was perfectly stabbed into his chest and that man fell down instantly.

"Kagami-kun" Kuroko shouted and he saw her pull another knife from her waist and threw that to Kagami's face.

"oi oi" Kagami was panicked and he prepared for the impact of that knife. But all he could felt was the knife has flown too close to his ear and he could hear the sound of that knife went passed him.

"Kagami-kun, please dunk" he heard Kuroko said. He saw her pulled out her gun and she pointed that at Kagami's direction. Kagami dunk just in time for Kuroko to pull the trigger. Kagami saw it hit the guy behind him between his eyes.

_That was such an amazing concentration. _Kagami thought. Then he realized all the ten men in that room was already dead before he had shot someone.

"Kagami-kun, please stop daydreaming" Kuroko said. She counted the knives in her waist, she still have eight of them left and her sword was already there. "I only have enough bullets to shoot twenty people"

"Why did you bring that tiny amount of bullet?" Kagami was dumbfounded by the fact that the girl in front of him only bring the smallest amount of bullet he ever heard in a mission. "Are you trying to get killed?"

"It would be Kagami-kun's job to be shooting the enemies. According to Aida-san's data, we would only have forty people guarding this place. I have enough weapons for myself" Kuroko explained while she pulled out the other four knifes from the dead bodies.

"Are you seriously using that knife back?" Kagami was disgusted when she wiped out the blood from the knife with the fabric from one of the guy's shirt.

"This knife will not get dulled just by me throwing it one or two times. You could go ahead while I retrieved the rest of the knife" Kuroko told him when she got her third knife.

"Just leave the last knife. I will protect you in there" Kagami told her sheepishly. "I will not let anyone hurt you" Kuroko saw the honest expression in his eyes and she knew he wanted to prove that he was able to protect someone.

"Okay" Kuroko told him and she put the knife in the pocket around her waist. "Please protect me Kagami-kun" Kuroko said as she started to walk to the next room.

"Why are you being a private guard? You could do something more normal in your life" Kagami asked her when they were scouting through the hall.

"Why Kagami-kun is working in Seirin then?" Kuroko asked him back.

"Because I got low score on my test and only Seirin accept that. Himuro actually got better score than me but he chose to stay with me" Kagami said sheepishly. Then he heard a movement from the room in front of him and he signaled for Kuroko to stop.

"Kurokocchi, this is me from the private channel. I have information about the killer. And Akashicchi told me to let you know. Don't say anything to Kagami"

"Kuroko, you should wait in here" Kagami whispered. He run and kuroko could hear the sound from the gun Kagami had shot while she focused on the information she got from Kise.

"This Killer, Hiroshi Kyouhei, was actually one of the soldiers that was about to get dispatched to the war zone when they found out that Hiroshi didn't get pass the psychology test and he was mentally unstable. They feared that Hiroshi might kill his own teammate. Once he got back to his house, he found that his wife has changed from the two years he was in military training" Kuroko heard Akashi's voice coming from the device in her ear.

"What kind of change?" Kuroko found herself asking him.

"Taiga is not there? She sold herself to gain money. And she used that money to gain access to wealthy men and you understand the rest"

"Why did he kill women with long hair then? And why Akashi-kun is not in your house?" Kuroko realized and she frowned when she heard Akashi chuckled

"The reason might be because the failure of his relationship. All of his victims were his former girlfriends or someone that used to be close to him. And I am home" Akashi said with a sense of dark humor coming from the way he explained to Kuroko.

"Kuroko! " Kuroko heard Kagami scream and it was in time for one of the henchman shoot the bullet at her direction. And the bullet hit her in the shoulder. She pulled out one of the knife and instantly threw it to the man and it hit the upper left side of his chest. That man fell instantly.

Kuroko went to throw all of the knife she had to the rest of henchmen in that room. All of the eight men in that room died instantly when the knives hit the vital part of the body. And not to mention Kuroko instantly shoot the henchmen that were still moving in the head.

"That was a nice job" she heard someone clapping and Kuroko saw Hiroshi was alone and in his hand was a pink hair. it was about ten centimeters long and Kuroko instantly saw red. She pulled out her sword and prepared to attack him.

"Kuroko-san! We got Momoi. Return to the post immediately" Kuroko heard from the receiver in her ear.

"You didn't kill her" Kuroko said to Hiroshi. But it sounded like a question in Kagami's ear.

"Yes. She tried to fool me. But I appreciate the effort and just cut her precious hair" Hiroshi pulled out two gun from his pocket and he pointed that at Kuroko. "What about you little miss? I fall in love with you when you struck my henchmen's chest with your knife. Also you pretty friend told me that you would catch me"

"Kuroko! Let's escape" Kagami said. He tried to get to Kuroko but it was too late as Kuroko went to attack Hiroshi. She swiftly swing her blade to Hiroshi and Hiroshi blocked her attack with both of his swords.

"You are really a lovely woman" Hiroshi said when he look closer upon Kuroko's face. Kuroko used her power to pushed him and swing her sword to his feet but he was faster than him and he slashed her other shoulder. "you are bleeding" Hiroshi said in panic. She kept attacking but Hiroshi kept defended her attack and she kept getting cut everywhere.

"you were great before. Is that tiny injury made your movement a bit slower?" Hiroshi asked Kuroko. Kuroko could felt herself getting dizzy and she started to lose her focus and she didn't realize the incoming attack from him. he aimed for her head luckily she ducked just in time, but he managed to sliced her hat into two and also made the wig fall to the floor.

-x-

"Kuroko-san was still inside?" Riko asked Hyuuga, who came out with a beaten up Momoi with him.

"Yes. Teppei tried to get there as fast as he could. Izuki already got Kagami safely here." Hyuuga reported.

"What's up with them? Are they gone crazy after seeing Hiroshi? Aarrrgh" Riko hit the table as hard as she could.

"Get your team out of there. We will save our own princess" Riko and Hyuuga heard someone said behind them. They saw Midorima and Akashi was holding two different guns in their hand. Akashi was using his Beretta 92 while Midorima using HK416 rifle in his hand.

"But you would need help!" Riko insisted.

"Get out. Or I will shoot you if you get in my way" Akashi said with his cold eyes directed to Kuroko. for some reason, his heterochromatic eyes were scarier than what she had saw before. "Shintaro, let's go" Akashi said to his teammate. Midorima checked his gun and he followed Akashi to save Kuroko.

-x-

"You also have a long hair!" Hiroshi screamed. He went berserk and pulled Kuroko's hair. Kuroko tried to fight him but the blood loss she got made her felt dizzy. And she already felt numb through the pain from multiple cuts throughout her body. "You deceived me! I was in love with you!" Hiroshi was about to swing the sword to cut Kuroko's neck when she heard a gunshot. Then she saw blood coming out from Hiroshi's missing hand. Then Kuroko heard one more shot coming and it went through Hiroshi's left thigh.

"I suggest that you left her or you will have nothing left when we are done with you" Midorima said while he pulled out the gun and pointed that to him.

"Akashi-kun" Kuroko tried to pronounce his name. But the pain made her winced. "You are supposed to be home"

"I feel hungry. So I went out to take a little walk" Akasshi said calmly. His eye was still looking at Hiroshi even when his voice didn't show any kind of anger from him.

"I am going to kill you!" Hiroshi said to Akashi. He was about to reach to his sword again when Akashi used his gun to shoot Hiroshi's hand. Then another bullet went through his shoulder.

"Let's go back. I want to take a bath" Akashi said to Kuroko. He tried to help her up when he noticed that Kuroko's wound was deeper than he expected. He could saw a pool of blood on his hand when he held Kuroko's body upwards.

"Akashi-kun, don't" Kuroko realized that Akashi had seen the amount of blood she had lost. She saw Akashi aimed the gun to Hiroshi's head. "SEI!" Kuroko screamed as Akashi pulled the trigger and the bullet went through Hiroshi's right leg rather than through his skull. Then another bullet was fired through his thigh.

"To let you die would be too easy." Akashi said when he picked up Kuroko in his arm. Kuroko held into his jacket weakly as Akashi walk passed Hiroshi, who had bleed so much that he need help immediately. Midorima followed Akashi and they left the building.

"Riko-san, we need paramedic right now" Izuki, who suddenly appeared next to Hiroshi, said to the receiver in his hand. "Kagami, help me to stop the blood from pouring" Izuki said as he used a long bandage to wrap it around Hiroshi's missing hand from Midorima's shot.

"That glasses guy has a great concentration. He could shoot this killer hand and not blowing up Kuroko's head" Kagami said in daze.

"According to the data from our leader, Akashi's personal guard was crazy strong. That glasses guy was the top name in black ops industry and he could shoot from one kilometer away" Izuki said.

"What about Kuroko? She looked weak and didn't have that much strength on her" Kagami said.

"As far as we know, Kuroko-san was the one they sent for assassination. And the one they sent for this mission was that Aomine Daiki. He was her partner for the past two years" Izuki said while he pressed the wound from Hiroshi. "Don't die yet" Izuki told Hiroshi.

"Even if I didn't die. I would not be able to use both of my leg and my left hand. just kill me now" Hiroshi told them while he struggled to stay awake. Izuki checked the injuries and he saw that Akashi might have hit the major nerve in Hiroshi's feet. Hiroshi definitely wouldn't be able to walk again.

"That Akashi is good too" Izuki said when they paramedic come and tried to help Hiroshi to the stretcher. "Kagami, you should go and follow Kuroko" he told Kagami. Kagami instantly run and he tried to follow Akashi but when he arrived at the post, he saw there are only people from Seirin.

"Where is Kuroko?" Kagami asked Riko, who was busy telling the paramedic to save Hiroshi and cleaned all the bodies in the area.

"Her friend already brought her somewhere. "Riko bite the nail in her thumb before she looked at Kagami and said "Kagami-kun. We would visit Akashi's company once we have wrapped this case. You should also prepare you official apology to Momoi Satsuki"

-x-

Two days later, Kagami and Kiyoshi were in front of Akashi's office and they saw Momoi has a new haircut. She had a shoulder length pink hair and her face look better already.

"Kagami-kun, Aida-san. Please come in" Momoi invite them to the guest room once one of the worker brought them to the seventh floor.

"I would like to apologize because of me, you got hurt badly" Kagami said when they have seated properly. In that room was Kise and Momoi. "Also, I would like to apologize to Kuroko. But the girl in the receptionist said she was absent for two days"

"ah, Tetsu-chan would be absence for another week. And don't worry about it, my injury has gotten better thanks to Takao-kun" Momoi told him

"Another week? Her injury is that bad?" Riko was surprised.

"It's not like that. Kurokocchi was on a business trip with Akashicchi and Aominecchi. They just went to Ney York yesterday" Kise said in hurry.

"She is working already? But she got multiple cuts and bruises!" Kagami looked like he was very angry when he heard Kuroko already working on her next assignment. Even in short amount, Kagami already fond of the teal haired girl.

"Not really working. Well Aominecchi is working but Kurokocchi—"."Ki-chan" Momoi said harshly to stop Kise from talking even more.

"Ah sorry Momocchi." Kise realized his mistake and he closed his mouth immediately.

"What else can we do to help you?" Momoi said sweetly to Riko and Kagami.

"I think we are done in here" Riko told them.

"can I have Kuroko's number?" Kagami suddenly asked Momoi. "I want to apologize to her"

"I will contact you once Tetsu-chan has come back. That's the best I could do" Momoi told Kagami. She gave Kagami a piece of paper and she told him to write down his contact number in it.

"why?" Kagami asked her while he wrote down his phone number and his email in that piece of paper.

"do you really want to apologize to Tetsu-chan?' Momoi asked Kagami coldly. Kagami gulped at the sudden changes in her mood.

"yes—"."then just wait until Tetsu-chan arrived back in Japan" Momoi interrupted Kagami. Riko noticed something was off with Momoi and she remembered about the list Akashi gave to her before they went to save Momoi. There was something he asked as the favor of saving Momoi and she had a hard time hiding that from her father.

"Momoi-san, did Akashi went to New York because of 'that' ?" Riko asked Momoi.

"Yes." Momoi answered weakly.

-x-

* * *

AN: next chapter would be the new arc. 

hehehe I was too happy when I read Kurobasu newest chapter (have you read it? Akashi vs Furihata was too "gyaaah") and suddenly I feel like updating

here are some of the review answer:

lhadyprilla: I try to update weekly. and sometimes when I am too happy, I might update sooner .

JunAkari: thank you for reading this story. like I have said from the first chapter, this story is one of my way to try writing in something I've never ever tried before. please help me to improve my skill(if I have one) .

**Also, this is still in the T-rated story right?**

I hope you like this chapter. please leave another review for this chapter too .


	6. A Remembrance of Zinnia part one

Chapter 6

-x-

_Ten years ago_

_It was the end of my school year when I decided that I would go to another school that definitely he wouldn't choose. Luckily he choose the school that was in different city than mine. He went all the way to Kyoto and I don't have to worry about hiding from him in the next three years._

_But there was still a part of her that wanted to know about what happened to her childhood friend. _

_At graduation party, he was the student with the highest score. And as expected he was needed to give the graduation speech. She prepared to saw him on the stage and she wanted to see him one last time before he went to Kyoto._

_But it wasn't him that was standing in the stage. Then she heard people whispering around her and she tried to hear what they said when she heard they said his name._

"_Do you know where the student that was supposed to give the graduation speech?"_

"_I heard he refused to give speech"_

"_No! What I hear, his family move to Kyoto after he got his grade"_

"_Really? I heard he also got a full scholarship to one of the prestigious school in there. But he was scary. I don't want to be anywhere near that student. He looked like he was judging you."_

"_He wasn't like that!" she screamed instantly after she heard that student's comment. She hated it when someone was talking bad things about him. He wasn't supposed to be like that. He was a sweet little boy; he wasn't anywhere like what that girl had described._

"_What's going on over there?" one of the teacher come to her seat with an angry expression._

"_Nothing, Sensei" she and the other student told that teacher._

"_Good! I expect you to stay silent until the end of the ceremony" the teacher lecturing them._

"_Yes, Sensei" _

_-x-_

"Tetsu, you should try this Strawberry shortcakes ice cream" Aomine said excitedly to Kuroko as he shoved the cup to Kuroko's face. They were in the middle of the New York when they decided to buy a defensive weapon. Or as Aomine usually call them, Swiss army knives. It was supposed a ten minutes walk. But they have been out for thirty minutes and all they did was trying all kind of food on their way to the public market.

"I prefer Vanilla Chocó chips" Kuroko said while she enjoyed her ice cream. "Aomine-kun, should we go to the weapon shop now?"

"Just relax for now, Tetsu. Akashi would be busy doing the business in the hotel. We should have fun before our work started" Aomine said happily.

"But Aomine-kun. We could go to this street anytime we want on the duration of our stay in here. Also, Akashi-kun hadn't told us why he want us to be here" Kuroko said to Aomine when he was about to wander to another food store.

"More like why he wanted me to be here. You are always everywhere he went" Aomine told Kuroko before he went to buy a big Turkey thigh in the crowded food stall that was several meters away. Kuroko sighed as she checked her phone to find the nearest store to buy the knives. She might have to buy the knives on her own.

"Can I have one Turkey thigh with extra cheese? And a vanilla milkshake" Aomine said to the vendor at the same time as the woman next to him.

"You should choose cola. The vanilla milkshake in here is not that good" the woman told Aomine.

"Ah, this is for my friend. She loves all kind of vanilla milkshake" Aomine said to her. He looked at her order and he saw she ordered a big size of pretzel and she also has a big fries in her hand. Aomine raised one of his eyebrows when he saw all the food she had.

"Ah, I am kind of hungry" the girl said sheepishly when she saw Aomine was looking at the food in her hand. Instead of looking disgusted, Aomine actually smile and look thrilled.

"That is amazing! Maybe you could show me around the city. I was here only for a week and so far I have tried ice cream, Burger, hot dogs" Aomine said while he tried to remember what he just ate.

"You should try this steak house! Then the spaghetti at the corner of that street" she said enthusiastically to Aomine.

"That would be great! I am staying at the hotel around the street 32. Next to that something Tree hotel" Aomine tried to remember the hotel's name. But he still couldn't recall the name of the place he stayed in.

"Wow, you must be well paid if you could afford that hotel" the girl was impressed.

"Nah, I was traveled with my big boss. You could say I am lucky he gave me a good hotel" Aomine said before he grabbed his Turkey thigh and he was waiting for his vanilla milkshake. "My name is Aomine Daiki"

"Are you Japanese?" she asked Aomine.

"Yeah, is there a problem?"

"You don't look like Japanese. You are too tall for a Japanese male. And your skin is too dark." That girl said when she took one look at Aomine.

I thought you should introduce yourself back in this situation" Aomine told her when he heard her comment about him not being the typical Japanese male.

"My name is Holly Bells. I knew my name is weird" she added when she saw Aomine was trying his hard to not laugh after hearing her full name.

"Aomine-kun" a teal haired girl suddenly appeared next to Aomine. In her hand was a white plastic bag and she was holding a phone to him. "This is for you"

" 'ello?" Aomine said to the phone. His mistake was he didn't see the ID caller. Holly turned to look at the smaller blue haired girl in front of her just as Kuroko turned to look at the brunette in front of her.

"My name is Kuroko" Kuroko introduced herself when she saw the girl who was talking to Aomine before she gave her phone to him.

"My name is Holly" Holly was still recovering from her shock. _Where did she come from?_

"Tetsu! Why don't you tell me Akashi was on the phone?" Aomine complained when he gave the phone back to Kuroko. Aomine heard the food vendor calling him to tell him that the vanilla milkshake was ready. He grabbed the cup and gave it to Kuroko. Kuroko happily accepted that vanilla milkshake.

"I have told Aomine-kun that Akashi-kun was not in the good mood. When we were in the airplane Akashi-kun looked unhappy after he saw his laptop." Kuroko slipped the phone back to her back pocket and she drink from the vanilla milkshake Aomine just gave to her.

"How do you know? You were sleeping all the way on the plane and Akashi wasn't looking at—never mind that!" Aomine was in panic. "He told me to bring you back immediately"

"Is something wrong?" Holly asked the pair in front of her. The blue haired girl was lots of shorter than Aomine. And her eyes were so big that she almost looked like a porcelain doll with her pale white skin. She was completely different from her. When Holly has the girl next door look, this little girl could definitely pass as the net idol if she wanted to.

"I have to go immediately. we should visit that steak house tonight." Aomine told Holly. "Let's go Tetsu, we are going to run" he told Kuroko while he snatched the plastic bag from Kuroko.

"Aomine-kun, I couldn't run while I drink" Kuroko said when she saw Aomine already took off by his own. "Please come to visit Aomine-kun this evening, Miss Holly" Kuroko turned to look at Holly.

"Just Holly is fine" Holly told her. Kuroko nodded and she excused herself before walking to where Aomine has taken off earlier.

-x-

"Daiki, where is Tetsumi?" Akashi asked when he saw that Aomine already arrived in the lobby with a big turkey thigh on his right hand and a plastic bag on his left hand. It didn't help his already bad mood when he saw that Kuroko was no where behind Aomine.

"She was supposed to be behind me" Aomine turned around and tried to look for Kuroko. Because she was small and most people in that city is taller than she was and the thin presence she had. It became a mission impossible to find Kuroko. Aomine was sure Kuroko should be behind him just few minutes earlier.

"Daiki" Akashi said his name again. This time, the threat was more prominent than ever. Aomine was glad he was in the public place or he would definitely not survive if he was alone with Akashi.

"Tetsu was supposed to be running behind me! She was drinking vanilla shake—"Aomine realized his mistake. Vanilla milkshake was Kuroko's most favorite drink but also one of her weakness. There was one time when Kuroko drank Vanilla milkshake in a bank before the said restaurant was attacked by robbers. She tried to chase one of the robbers when she felt pain in her stomach. But she was still chasing after the robber and managed to stop him before she gave him up the official police. When she came back, her face was full with lots of sweats and her clothes were slightly damp from the excessive amount of sweats. it was not until they finally returned to the car that Aomine realized Kuroko clutching her stomach. And also, Aomine forgot that Kuroko still has a wounded shoulder and lots of bruises on her body which is why she used long sleeves shirt.

"Aomine-kun, you run with a turkey thigh in your hand?"

"GAAAH" Aomine screamed. "Don't just suddenly appear"

"I was walking behind you Aomine-kun" Kuroko frowned then she turned to look at Akashi. "About Akashi-kun's dinner reservation, your suit will be ready at five in the evening.

"Tetsumi, did you bring an evening dress like I told you to?" Akashi asked her.

"I brought the cream colored long dress with a jacket in my suitcase. Am I going to accompany Akashi-kun to the dinner tonight?"

The answer she got was a smile from Akashi as he gave her and Aomine their room keys. "And Daiki, I hope you are ready for tomorrow. You will be accompanying me to my first meeting here. I want you in the lobby at six thirty in the morning"

-x-

"Akashi-kun, are we going to meet with the client Kuroko asked him when they were seated in the car.

"Did you read the file I sent you?" Akashi asked her.

"Yes. I already met the first person and it didn't seem that person have anything to do with the problem. Are we going to meet the other one?" Kuroko asked him.

"she is aware of her problem. I want you to be close with this one while Daiki would protect this one." Akashi told Kuroko as he pointed at the two different pictures in her phone.

"Aomine-kun didn't know about this. Is it really okay?" Kuroko asked Akashi before they went out from the car.

"Daiki is the best candidate to protect this person. Do you doubt your teammate, Tetsumi?"

Kuroko didn't have any answer for that question. she trust Aomine and she knew Aomine would do a great job. But there was something on her mind, something that made her doubt Aomine for the first time since they were being partner in the past two years. Akashi saw the troubling look in Kuroko's face but they had arrived at the restaurant and the driver had opened the door for Akashi. they went to the elevator that would bring them to the top of the hotel, where they would have their dinner with their client.

A waiter in his thirty greeted them as soon as they entered the restaurant and asked about their reservation.

"Don't worry, he is with me" A young male with his copper-colored haired came to greeted Akashi immediately after he spotted Akashi entering the room. "It's nice to finally meet you, Mr. Akashi"

"It's nice to see you too Mr. Rayleigh" Akashi greeted back the male that looked like he was in his mid twenty. Even when he was several centimeters taller than Akashi, he was less threatening than Akashi in Kuroko's eyes.

"My name is Alex Rayleigh" he introduced himself to Kuroko.

"Kuroko Tetsumi. It's nice to see you Mr. Rayleigh" Kuroko told him.

"Kuroko? I though you are Mr. Akashi's little sister"

"Honey, where are you? Why are you leaving me?" there was a loud pitched voice coming from behind them. a girl with her long brown hair came running and then she cling herself to the copper colored male. That girl used a dress that looked a lot like it should be used as a swim wear rather than a night gown.

"I was just greeted my guest my dear. Let's go back to our seat" Alex said to the girl and Kuroko noticed he slightly pushed away the girl. Kuroko and Akashi followed Alex to the seat that was at the corner of the restaurant with the beautiful view of the night.

"Excuse me; do you have vanilla ice cream?" Kuroko asked the waiter when they have finished ordered their food.

"We do, do you want that as your dessert, Miss?" the waiter asked Kuroko.

"Yes, please" Kuroko answered while she gave the menu back to the waiter.

"Do you know ice cream would make you fat? You could eat all you want in your teen year and who know? maybe you will end up getting fat and ugly in your twenties." The woman suddenly told Kuroko after she heard Kuroko asked for ice cream. She glared at Kuroko as she drank another glass of her wine. Akashi could see a vein popped in Kuroko's forehead as she heard the woman in front of her thinking that she was still in her teen.

"Hey, don't say that to my client" Alex said to his girl. She ignored Alex and drank more wine. Kuroko noticed the woman was clearly drunk and if she kept drinking, she would not be able to stand straight before the dinner even started.

"Why you never care about me? All you care about is your client and your missing sister. You even refused to buy me that car I showed you in the magazine" the woman started to rambling. She was clearly had drunk by the way she slurred her words when she was talking. Alex called someone from his phone and few minutes later, two big male came and bring the woman to exit the restaurant.

"I am sorry about my girlfriend. My personal guards will make sure she arrived at her house safely." Alex apologized to Kuroko and Akashi. "I didn't see you bring your personal guards Mr. Akashi"

"I don't need to bring them, Mr. Rayleigh"

"I envy you Mr. Akashi. You could bring a cute date without guards following you around. I wish I could do that"

"Is there something wrong?" Kuroko asked him when she noticed the solemn look on his face and the sadness in his eyes when he said date.

"The one who dealt with the company was my brother and his wife. When my brother died, there was a little problem within our family because half of the asset went to my sister in law's name. That's why I want to discuss this matter with you. Mr. Akashi" Alex told them before he drink a sip from his wine.

"You want to stop the trading business between our companies?" Akashi asked him.

"Yes. I don't want your company to gain loss when the management in my part has gotten worse. It was supposed to be my sister in law's family company. But when my brother married to her, his wife gave him the rights to lead the company. But he was killed suddenly. And my brother left a will saying that he would leave the company to me and my sister. It went normal until six months ago, someone put a poison in my food and I have to be hospitalized" Alex told them.

"What happened to your sister?" Kuroko asked him. The information from him was accurate just like the one Seirin provided.

"She told me that she would find whoever poisoned me and she has been missing until now" Alex said sadly. "Enough with my story, how do you find the city so far?" he asked both Akashi and Kuroko.

"It was pleasant" was the only answer Kuroko could think when she remembered the event that afternoon with Aomine.

-x-

In the other part of the city, Holly was pacing around the lobby of the hotel. and she was considering whether she want to ask the receptionist about Aomine Daiki or she just forget about him and leave the hotel and hope she would bumped into him on the road the next day.

"What should I do? But he told me to come to the hotel" Holly mumbled.

"Hoi, why don't you call the receptionist to let me know that you are here?" she heard Aomine's voice from behind her. Holly jumped to see Aomine in his jacket and he was using much less formal clothes than before. She just realized that Aomine was much taller than she was, even when Holly was 170cm tall, her head was still at the same level as his shoulder.

"Aomine! You surprised me" Holly jumped a little when she heard Aomine's voice.

"Yeah yeah, now let's go before that steakhouse was closed"

"Okay, we should use my car because it's pretty far from here." Holly told him. the he saw she was looking at something behind him. "Where is your girlfriend?"

"I ain't have one"

"Eh? Then who was that cute little girl from before?" Holly asked him.

"Hmm, little? Tetsu? She is my partner"

"Partner? Then she is your wife?" Holly was surprised even more. He already has a wife and he asked her out? He really had no shame on himself?

"What the? Tetsu as my wife? Are you crazy?" Aomine looked around with panic expression as if someone would suddenly appeared behind him and stabbed him with a knife. "Tetsu is my partner in my job!"

"But you are close to her. Why don't you date her?" Holly asked. She was curious on Aomine's relationship with Kuroko. They were close to each other this afternoon and there must be something between them.

"Not interested in someone below cup C" Aomine mumbled lowly. But it was enough for Holly to hear about and she flushed red when she heard his confession.

"You are a pervert" Holly told him when they have arrived in front of her old mustang car that was park in front of the hotel.

"Whatever. Let's go before the steakhouse run out of meat" Aomine opened the car and he entered the passenger's side. Holly sighed and she also entered the car and started to drive to the restaurant.

-x-

"This is a steak place?" Aomine said when they have arrived at a steakhouse somewhere far away from the city. It looked like they were in different city already with the southern atmosphere coming from the said restaurant. The restaurant's building had an old country atmosphere in it and Aomine expected to find a waiter cowboy hat when he entered the restaurant.

"Of course! You could buy 2 kilos of steak in here with cheap prices!" Holly said excitedly. Then she ordered the said two kilos of steak and left Aomine wondering how she could finish all of that meat was beyond Aomine's prediction. But the way she looked when she explained the food made him wanted to try the same thing she ordered.

"I would order the same thing as she did" Aomine said to the woman who took his order.

"Excellent choice! Your order will come up in a moment" the woman said before she left the table.

"Is this steak as good as you said?" Aomine asked her when their drink has arrived.

"Of course! And this is also the place I could trust to eat" Holly said happily while she stirred the soda in her drink

"Trust to eat?"

"Never mind! Let's drink!" Holly avoided the question and she took a sip from her soda. Aomine choose to look around the restaurant and noticed there were some guys that had been watching them since they have arrived at the restaurant. And he also saw the staff in that restaurant was a little bit afraid of something when the waitress that took their order kept glancing to the corner table with five male ate in there.

"oi, do you really often come here?" Aomine asked Holly. He was suspicious of the group of men that were watching them.

"Yeah, every Sunday" Holly said to Aomine. She saw Aomine glanced at the men behind her and her eyes widened and the once happy expression in her face turned into a scared one. "Aomine, you should take my keys and leave" Holly pulled out the keys from her purse and gave it to Aomine.

"Are they threatening you?" Aomine asked her while he counted the men in the other table. _I could handle five of them _Aomine thought. He checked that he had his knife on his hand. But in order to make that as a self defense, they have to attack him first.

"You should not be involved with my problem. I am sorry that this little dining trip has to be this way" Holly said to Aomine.

"You wouldn't stand a chance against them" Aomine said bluntly but he said that with a big smile on his face. They have to pretend that they were enjoying each other company so those men would not be suspicious that their plan was already busted.

"I manage to escape them twice" Holly pushed the keys to Aomine's hand. Aomine look that the men. They saw the keys in Holly's hand and they stopped eating and started to walk to Aomine's table.

"What kind of self defense you had learnt?" Aomine asked Holly. His left hand in his pocket was already grabbing the knife in the pocket in his jacket and kept his hand hidden on his jacket.

"The one in television?" Holly said unsurely. "I could punch someone!" she insisted.

"Excuse me, we need to talk to her" the first said to Aomine.

"Can't you see? She is with me" Aomine said in the same threatening tine just like that guy had used. "Crawl back to whatever hole you came from"

"Hey man! Just go find other girl in the area to warm your bed tonight. We have business with this one" the second man said to Aomine. He grabbed the collar of Aomine's shirt to scare Aomine.

"Aomine" he could hear Holly's voice calling for him.

"Holly, is this count as self defense?" Aomine asked her. He saw her shaking her head and Aomine sighed, the self defense rule really irritated him. But he would be killed if Akashi found out that he went into illegal fight in another country.

"You think you could win?" the second man that has grabbed his collar pulled Aomine's upwards then the third man punched Aomine's face.

"That should count as self defense" Holly said timidly after the third man had punched Aomine's jaw. She saw Aomine smiled excitedly before he grabbed the second man and Aomine punched him in the stomach. The man grunted before he fell to the ground.

"GET HIM" the first man that seemed to be the leader ordered the other three to attack Aomine. Aomine smiled happily when one of the men, the third man, tried to punch him in the chest. Aomine grabbed that man's hand and he twisted it until he could hear the sickening crack coming from the hand. And Aomine used that man to shield himself when the forth man tried to stab him. The forth man startled when the knife stabbed his own accomplish rather than Aomine, and Aomine used this to jumped and kicked that man's head until that man fell to the ground.

"You are good" the first man said before he pulled out a knucklehead from his pocket.

"Hey, where do you get that?" Aomine asked when he saw the knucklehead was actually having an excellent quality.

"At the corner of the 50th Street. There is a nice and cheap weaponry store in there" the first man said after he finished equipping his knucklehead.

"Holly, you should bring me there tomorrow" Aomine shout to her.

"Aomine! Are you stupid? You should run! he is one of the best fighters in the area" Holly said hysterically.

"Then he should be able to entertain me. It's been too long since I have a fight with the best fighter" Aomine said excitedly. He prepared to receive the attack from the first man. "And you could also attack me "Aomine said to the fifth man behind him.

"You are cocky. Let's see if you are as good as you think" the first man said. He run to Aomine's direction and he aimed for Aomine's face. Aomine dunked and he kicked the man's leg at the same time the fifth man tried to stab Aomine from behind. Aomine grabbed the knife and with his knee, he kicked the fifth man's chest as hard as he could. Blood was coming from his mouth and he fell unconscious after that.

The first man charge at him again, this time he aimed for Aomine's arm and leg but Aomine easily avoided his attack. Despite it was easy for Aomine to escape from this man attack; he had no chance to fight back. One wrong step, he would have a taste of that nice knucklehead in the first man's hand. As if someone playing a joke with him, he heard his phone ringing in his pocket and Aomine pulled out the phone and throw it to Holly just before the first man hit Aomine's hand.

"Answer it." he shouted while he was busy trying to find the right time to attack the first's man.

"What? I can't do that. This is Kuroko calling you" Holly shouted back.

"I am trying to fight here."

"what if Kuroko get suspicious when I answered your phone. You will ruined your chance with Kuroko" Holly shouted back while his phone already on its fourth tone.

"answer the phone or you want to fight with this man?. also, Don't say anything about this" Aomine shouted to her while he tried to lure away the man from Holly so Kuroko wouldn't hear the fight that happened between Aomine and the first man.

"Hello?"

"Ah, who is this?" Holly heard Kuroko's voice from the phone.

"This is Holly, the girl from this afternoon. " Holly said to Kuroko.

"Miss Holly, Where is Aomine-kun?"

"Aomine is quite busy at the moment. He had fun eating his steak and he was too full to do anything." Holly said with a fake happy voice. "Do you really need to talk to Aomine?"

"No, just tell Aomine-kun that tomorrow he don't have to come to the morning meeting. He could do anything he wants for the rest of the day"

"is that all?" Holly asked Kuroko.

"Yes, please make sure Aomine-kun got the message. He doesn't like to wake early in his free time" Holly heard Kuroko said.

"ah Kuroko, there is nothing between Aomine and I, we just visit this steakhouse and we still in the steakhouse" Holly said in hurry before Kuroko ended the call. "we just have a dinner"

"I understand. Good night, Miss Holly" she heard Kuroko said before she ended the call.

"What did Tetsu want?" Aomine suddenly appeared in front of Holly.

"You have a free time tomorrow. No meeting for you" Holly said while she tried to find the male Aomine was fighting from before.

"That's rare for Akashi to change his mind." Aomine looked troubled when he said this. "Let's go back. I have to clean this wound" Aomine said to Holly while he looked at his wounded hand.

"Go back where? And also, when did you get this wound?"Holly said when she saw the blood dripping from Aomine's palm.

"To your house. I wouldn't be able to enter my hotel with this amount blood in my hand. I didn't know that knife could cut this deep " Aomine said when he grabbed the napkin from the table and used that to bandaged the palm of his hand. "Could you pack the steak we just ordered?" Aomine asked to one of the waitress.

"Right away sir!" the waitress ran back to the kitchen instantly.

"Are you, for real?" Holly was speechless. This man was just fighting with five guys and he had a big gash on the palm of his hand. And he easily asked if they could pack the steak?

" I have paid for that steak. You do have a first aid kit in your house, right?" Aomine asked her.

"Yes, but—"

"That's great! Now let's go back before I fainted from losing this much blood" Aomine tapped Holly's shoulder like they were a long time friend.

"I would be surprised if you actually fainted" Holly mumbled to herself.

-x-

* * *

AN:

forgive me .

I hope I could still write in fanfic. I just found out that my country think FF have pornographic content and should be banned. (I was planning to update two days ago and I couldn't even open my T-rated story) it was a good thing that suddenly I could access to FF.(and I pray that nightmare of not being able to open FF will not happened again)

have you seen the new chapter? I was thinking of bringing furihata to the story(it would be fun to add a little cihuahua to this story)

Also, here is some review answer(thank you for your reviews. I am really happy to read them):

FuyuShirotsuki: err... which "that" are you talking about? .

JunAkari: heheh thank you for reading this story. I hope it gets more romantic too.

Aztia: hehehe I wouldn't really bully Kagami(that's much). I just love the awkwardness between Kuroko and Kagami on their first game in the real story. and thank you for being a faithful reader XD

seijuro407: maybe he is hungry for something else? .. hehehe kidding.

Endemion: I really hope I could write a slower action-y story. but I haven't find a good book as my study guide. only Akashi, who could have an excuse like that and get away with it.


	7. A Remembrance of Zinnia part two

Chapter 7

-x-

_Love is such a weird thing._

_Love at first sight is possible, but it pays to take a second look_  
_Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired._

* * *

It was an early morning for Kuroko and it didn't seem that the meeting between Akashi and Rayleigh's family would end anytime sooner. She went out to grab a tea for herself and also to escape from the intense atmosphere in the meeting room.

"It was too much for you?" she heard someone said to her.

"Mr. Rayleigh" Kuroko greeted Alex. "Was the meeting always like that?"

"Please call me Alex. And yeah, since my sister in law disappear" Alex told Kuroko while he made himself a cup of coffee.

"What would happened if your sister in law came back to the office?" Kuroko asked him. She put two tea spoons on her tea and she stirred the tea while Alex's coffee was just finished brewing.

"She would be in Akashi's position since I planned to give all the right to lead the company to her. But she had to go and disappear from me" Alex told her in a very low tone. Kuroko stopped stirring the tea in her hand and she turned to look at Alex.

"Why?" was the only word she could think of.

"If I tell you, would you like to have lunch with me tomorrow?"

"Excuse me?" Kuroko find it hard to believe what she just heard. Did he really ask her to have lunch?

"You are not mistaken. I would love for you to go on a lunch trip with me tomorrow" Alex told Kuroko. "I hope that we could become closer, personally."

"I am afraid that I have to refuse, Mr. Alex" Kuroko apologized profoundly.

"May I know the reason?" he asked Kuroko. She is the first woman to refuse him without even giving a second thought about it and she managed to catch his attention by doing that.

"Kurokocchi~" a loud and shrilly voice was calling her name. She saw Kise entered the room and he looked even more professional with a black rim glasses that he used. "Finally I arrived in here. And Akashicchi told me to work instantly"

"Kise-kun, we have our client over here" Kuroko pushed Kise away when he tried to hug Kuroko just after he entered the room.

"Ah, my name is Kise Ryouta. It's nice to see you Mr. Alex Rayleigh" Kise introduced himself at once after he caught the glimpse of Alex from the corner of his eyes.

"Now I understand why you refused my offer, Kuroko" Alex said while he eyed Kise. "You have a good looking partner already. Is he you boyfriend or?"

"She is the love of my life! Kurokocchi and I always try to keep it a secret because we fear that they would separate us because of our relationship" Kise said while he put his arm around Kuroko's shoulder. There was a look of mischief in his eyes, but only for a second before that look turned into a 'get away from her' look towards Alex.

"Is that so? I have to apologize for trying to ask your girlfriend out. Please excuse me" Alex told Kise while he bowed slightly. Then Alex left the room when his secretary was calling him that he was needed in the meeting room.

"Kise-kun, what do you think you are doing?" Kuroko said to Kise as soon as Alex left the room.

"Kurokocchi" Kise whined when he saw Kuroko glared at him. "This is Akashicchi's order. I have to leave from Japan as soon as I got the message and the only thing I could bring was a small suitcase with three clothes. And I was forced to leave my computers behind"

"Akashi-kun never mention to me about this. And please removed your hand, Kise-kun"

"eh? But Akashicchi told me to guard you, Kurokocchi" Kise said and he pull out his phone and showed the said mail to Kuroko. It was true that Akashi told Kise to go here as soon as he could and he already prepared a visa for him at the same time as her departure with Akashi and Aomine. Kuroko thought it was a mistake Akashi made when he asked Momoi to make a visa for Kise. She should have known better that Akashi did not make a mistake.

"Why did you just arrive now, Kise-kun?" Kuroko asked Kise while she gave his phone back to him.

"Akashi-kun just sent this mail two hours before my departure using the private jet. And on the bottom part of that email, he said that he would gave me a unpaid leave if I didn't arrived on time until you came back to Japan" Kise cried again, but this time he cried while he wrapped his hand while he stand behind Kuroko. And Kuroko could feel the office have new things to talk about until the end of the week when she saw the giggling women that has just entered the office.

"I believed I told you to call Tetsumi to go back to the meeting room. Ryouta"

"of course, Akashicchi~ now I have to tell Aominecchi that I would be staying in the same room as he was. Kurokocchi should have gone back to the meeting with Akashicchi" Kise backed away instantly he felt the killing aura coming from behind him and he run away the moment Akashi had move from the door.

"That was mean" Kuroko said to Akashi when Kise already left the room.

"I did nothing, Tetsumi. Perhaps Ryouta couldn't wait to meet with Daiki"

"The meeting should be finished the moment you arrived here. Akashi-kun wasn't the type to leave before the meeting is over" Kuroko said to Akashi. To hear her comment made Akashi smiled and it made Kuroko feel even more irritated. "Akashi-kun never told me about the email you sent to Kise-kun"

"Should I?"

"You are enjoying this" Kuroko realized by the smile that linger in Akashi's face.

"Shouldn't you go with Ryouta? He should be on his way to the lobby" Akashi told Kuroko. Kuroko glared at Akashi with a pure hatred aura coming from her. For some unknown reason, Akashi seemed unusually tolerant.

"Akashi-kun is really okay with this?"

"As long as Ryouta obliged to the term and condition he had signed for." He saw Kuroko gave him the look of pure confusion when he mentioned the contract Kise has signed for.

"I will not go with Kise-kun until Akashi-kun told me about the contract" Kuroko said as she put her arms on her hips and glare at scary as she could to Akashi, which Akashi thought it was like a kitten trying to scare a lion.

"Are you sure, Tetsumi? Should you be a good girlfriend and followed Ryouta?"

"Why is it any of Akashi-kun's business?" Kuroko squeaked out the word when once again, Akashi has gotten closer to her without her realizing it. "Also, this is Alex-san's office; Akashi-kun should back away a little bit"

"Why don't you just take a step back, Tetsumi? You are not exactly cornered"

"If I took a step back, Akashi-kun would take another step forward. And I will ended up being cornered by Akashi-kun" Kuroko told him. The only way for her to escape Akashi was to exit the room and followed Kise to the lobby. Which mean, she would do as Akashi had planned? She should have realized it from the start that he didn't give her a choice but to follow Kise. She saw the door opened and Kuroko instantly run towards the door and she exited the room without giving Akashi a second glance.

"Mr. Akashi Seijuro. Is that the way you treated her?" the person who just entered the room said to Akashi.

"She has nothing to do with this. And that's your job to make sure she stay clear from the trouble" Akashi said to the man. He had a black hair and slender build. Also, he was about the same height as Aomine when they were standing.

"Tetsumi-chan looked fine. She would be able to handle that fox on her own" that man said playfully to Akashi. he saw Akashi gave him a disapproving look to him. "ah gomen, should I call her Tetsumi-sama?"

"nee-chan, Tetsumi already on her way to the scary face's hotel" another man entered the room.

"We should hurry then, don't want to make Sei-chan angry" the man winked before he went out of the room and followed the orange haired man that had left the room before him.

-x-

As Holly opened her eyes, she realized that she wasn't in her old room. Also, her bed was far more comfortable than usual. Then she checked that she still fully clothed and her bag was in the table next to the bed she was using.

"ah, you finally wake" she heard someone said as the door to the bed room was opened. It revealed a blue haired male with towel wrapped around his waist. She could see few water still dropping from his wet hair.

"AAAAAAAH" Holly screamed as loud as she could. Both Aomine and Kuroko failed to hear the sound of someone opening the front door.

"Aominecchi! Are you al…right?" Kise saw the situation and he went to cover Kuroko's eyes with his hand.

"Kise-kun, why are you covering my eyes?" Kuroko tried to remove Kise's hand. "Aomine-kun, are you alright?"

"Kurokocchi, I think I will need another room. Aominecchi is quite…. Busy" Kise wasn't sure on how he would explain the situation to Kuroko.

"YOU PERVERT!" Holly kept screaming. She grabbed the pillow and started to throw the pillow one by one to Aomine.

"What's going on? I just heard Holly-san's voice" Kuroko asked. She still tried to removed Kise's hand.

"Kurokocchi, let's go back later. Aominecchi, please continue your business"

"What are you saying Kise? Stop throwing pillows at me!" Aomine shouted at Holly when she finally ran out of pillows to throw at Aomine.

"Kise-kun, removed this hand immediately" finally Kuroko snapped and she coldly ordered Kise. The whole room was surprised to hear Kuroko's cold voice. Kise removed his hand immediately and Kuroko could saw Holly in the bed and Aomine was still in his towel.

"Aomine-kun please put some clothes on" Kuroko ordered Aomine, which made Aomine run to the closet immediately. And Kuroko noticed the big gash on Aomine's palm when he winced as he opened the door.

"Kise-kun, did you bring the first aid kit in your suitcase?" Kuroko asked Kise.

"I didn't. What do you need that for?" Kise asked her. "Are you okay? Akashicchi will kill me if your wound was reopened"

"Aomine-kun, we will do something about the wound in your hand. It would definitely need stitches" Kuroko said when Aomine has come out from the closet and she grabbed his hand.

"Why are you going?" Aomine said to Holly when she was about to leave the door.

"Home? I wasn't needed in here" Holly told him.

"You are coming with us, Miss" another voice came from the entrance. This time, it came from a dark haired male and behind him was a boy with his short gray hair.

"Mibuchi-kun. What are you doing in here?"

"Tetsumi-sama, I hope you didn't forget about me" he slightly bowed to Kuroko as he spoke.

"Akashi-sama has been waiting for us. We should go, Kuroko-sama. I will take care of Miss Rayleigh" the grey haired male told Kuroko.

"How can everybody have the key to my room?" Aomine finally gained his voice back and he asked the question to Mibuchi and Kise.

"I could enter without a mere card key" Mibuchi told Aomine.

"it is an easy thing to open the door when you know the program the use in the magnetic card" Kise told Aomine casually.

-x-

"Don't you have any pain killers?" Aomine said for the third time since Mibuchi started to stitch the wound in Aomine's palm.

"We don't expect someone needed stitches because he was hungry for steak. And you are not a baby that needed pain killers" Mibuchi said to Aomine as he finished stitching Aomine's wound.

"Why am I needed in here?" Holly asked for the numerous times since the group has dragged her into a suite hotel that was close to Aomine's hotel.

"Because Aominecchi got hurt just one day after he arrived in here. And you are the only person who saw what had happened to him" Kise explained happily to Holly.

"Why can't you believe me when I told you it was self defense" Aomine shouted from where he was while Mibuchi had finished stitches his wound and was about to put the bandage on his wound.

"is that okay for him to stitched Aomine? Should you bring him to the doctor?" Holly asked as she took a peek at Aomine and Mibuchi.

"I am Akashi's family doctor. It was a coincidence that I stayed in America today" Mibuchi told Holly as he finished the treatment on Aomine's wound.

"You look nothing like a doctor" Aomine mumbled, loud enough to be heard by Mibuchi. Mibuchi just laugh as he 'accidentally' hit Aomine's injured palm. Which earned an angry shout from Aomine.

"What are you doing in here?" A cold voice was heard from the entrance and it made the rest of the group froze. Akashi stood there, still in his black suit, and he didn't look happy at all.

"Sei-chan, we are here because we need to treat Aomine's injured hand" Mibuchi casually told Akashi. Aomine realized that Mibuchi just save himself and sacrificing Aomine in the process.

"Is that true, Daiki?"

"I wasn't involved in any fight. It was purely self defense" Aomine said. He saw Kise face palmed as Mibuchi shake his head as to tell Aomine that it wasn't a good idea to mention he was in a fight. "I cut my hand when I tried to eat a steak"

"Aominecchi, could you make a better excuse?" Kise whispered to Aomine.

"Bad things could happen to anyone" Aomine reasoned back to Kise.

"You could dodge flying knives directed at you without having to look at that knife. Are you thinking that Akashicchi will believe that you cute yourself while you ate steak?"

"What am I supposed to say? Someone tried to rob me with knife?" Aomine whispered harshly to Kise.

"Actually, that was a better excuse" Mibuchi come between them and also whispering his words.

"Who is that scary guy over there?" Holly came to the group and followed to whisper her words.

"That's Akashicchi. He is our boss" Kise told Holly.

"Kise-kun, Aomine-kun, Mibuchi-kun, and Holly-san. Why are you whispering at the corner of the room?" they heard Kuroko's voice came to the room. "Akashi-kun, welcome back"

"What do you have in your mind when you brought them here, Tetsumi?" the way Akashi asked her made the rest of the cornered people in the room cowering in fear. Even Holly, who didn't know a single thing about Akashi felt the intimidated aura from the red haired male.

"Mibuchi-kun needed to stitch Aomine-kun's hand." Kuroko answered casually as she put the tea she just made to the table.

"Tetsu-chan, where should I put these cookies-Akashi-sama" the orange haired male was surprised to see Akashi standing in the doorway.

"I see that you have turned my room into recreational space needed for your little gathering, Kotaro"

"This is Tetsu-chan" Hayama saw Kise whispered _Tetsumi-sama _to his direction. "Tetsumi-sama's idea"

"I hope Akashi-kun is not angry. I don't know where I should have brought Aomine-kun" Kuroko said with her big blue eyes pleading at Akashi.

"What about hospital?" Holly whispered.

"Keep quiet, if there is one person that could save us. It would be Tetsu" Aomine whispered back to Holly.

"I am not angry at you. But you should have tell me before you decided to bring some people here"

"I am sorry, Akashi-kun. I will not forget to tell you next time" Kuroko bowed slightly to Akashi. "Do you need anything, Akashi-kun?"

"No. I will be leaving to go back to my office" Akashi said before he left the room without giving a second glance to the group at the corner of his room.

"You are our savior, Tetsumi!" Aomine came and picked her up while he swing her body easiy. Holly couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous at the happiness showed in Aomine's face when he picked Kuroko's up.

"There is nothing between them" she heard the blonde man said to her.

"But they look comfortable with each other. As if they have been dating for the longest time" Holly said sadly. She wasn't supposed to feel anything for someone she just met.

"Kurokocchi and Aominecchi has been partner forever. You could say that Aominecchi will not do anything if Kuroko is the last girl on earth. She is not his type" Kise said to Holly as they saw Mibuchi helped to free Kuroko from Aomine's hand. They saw Kuroko glared at Aomine and she turned to glare at Mibuchi after she realized at how easy it was to pick her up. "You don't need to worry, Holly-san" Kise told her before he ran to where Kuroko was standing and he picked her up again and swing her around like she is a light weight. Then Holly realized something.

"How did he know my name? I thought I haven't introduced myself to him" she mumbled as she looked at Mibuchi and Kise. But she dismissed it easily when Kuroko told the group that she would treat them to the Sushi restaurant of Holly's choice. Holly was not someone that would say no to free food.

-x-

In the other part of the city, a certain man with his dark hair came to meet with the male with his copper colored hair. This dark haired male has a certain aura that emitted the "bad boy" image within him.

"I see that you have met with him" the dark haired male said to the copper haired male in front of him. They were seated inside a night club within the busy New York City. The dark haired male pull out a cigarette from his pocket and he started to lit up the cigarette.

"I am amazed that you could escape from him in the past two years. I think he had seen through me" the copper haired male said with a sinister smile on his face.

"It's because you made a move on his beloved. He will not let you be anywhere nears her. Speaking of the female, she hasn't come to your place and reclaimed what supposed to be hers from you?"

"She is a coward." The copper haired male said while he took a drink from his beer. "Also a stupid one. She believed that her husband is a saint businessman. You should have seen her face when she found out about the illegal business he had done behind her back"

"And you took the whole company under your name after you killed him?"

"Killing him is easy. But I have to wait until she gave all of the company to him before I could kill him. I need to kill her too but she has escape once she found out about my plan" the dark haired male raised one of his eyebrows as his was to showed the copper haired male that he is interested in knowing the continuation.

"You should be careful if he is here. He already made you his prime target and he will not hesitate to kill you if you plan to do something with his girl" the dark haired male said to his companion.

"I will crush him and I will claim the girl as my own" the copper haired male answered with a sinister smile on his face.

"Why are you obsessed with her? You could have a better girl than her"

"I want to crush her after she rejected me"

"You really can't handle rejection?" the black haired male teasingly said to his companion.

"She is the first female to reject me without even thinking" the copper haired male look annoyed when he recalled the memories in his head. "Are you going back to your country?"

"Yes. I have unfinished business" the dark haired male said before he pull out a few hundred dollar bill on the table.

"Too bad that you wouldn't be able to see his crying face" the copper haired male said before he watched the dark haired male left the room. He ordered another glass of drink from the bartender.

-x-

"What am I doing in here?" Holly asked to the group in front of her. For unknown reason, she had to follow this group after the door to her apartment was ringing very early in the morning. She was sure that she wouldn't met Aomine and his friend after the incident yesterday with their boss. But when she opened the door and saw Kise with a big box on his hand and he dragged her out from her apartment after he put the box in the middle of her table. It was a good thing she sleep with her jean from the previous day rather than using the embarrassing pajamas.

"Come on Holicchi, you promised to give me the tour around this city" Kise said to holly while he had numerous amount of modeling agency card on his hand.

"Holicchi?" Holly was unsure on what to comment about her new name from Kise.

"It's his of saying that he trusts you" Aomine answered for her. "You have gained our trust"

"Thank you" Holly felt happy and blushing at the same time. Aomine always direct and he spoke what he had on his mind. Her heart beat faster when she saw Aomine was looking directly into her eyes.

"Cheer up. " Aomine told her awkwardly. She nodded shyly before both of them walk next to each other.

"I wonder what kind of present Kurokocchi would like." Kise said to break the tension between Aomine and Holly.

"Where is Tetsu anyway? I thought she should have been with you?" Aomine said to Kise.

"I am afraid to knock on Tetsu's room" Kise answered timidly.

"Kuroko didn't stay in the same hotel as you two?" Holly asked both male that seemed to talk to each other using their eyes.

"Kise-kun!" they heard Kuroko's voice from the distant. Holly looked up to see Kuroko using her long black shirt with a pair of black jeans and knee length boots. She used a leather jacket on top of her shirt and it completely changed her image from the net idol to something more mysterious with her long teal haired was tied up into a high ponytail.

"Kurokocchi, are you working today?" Kise asked her. Holly watched carefully that Kuroko's eyes are completely different than her eyes from the day earlier when she met her.

"Tetsumi, it's time to go" Holly saw the same red haired male calling for her. Holly catch his eyes and she turned her head away from those scarlet eyes. His eyes were cold and intimidating. She noticed that he used his formal clothe. Before Kuroko left, Holly saw she whispered something to Aomine and Kuroko's eyes turned to look at her for one second before she entered the expensive looking car with the red-haired male.

"What's wrong, Aominecchi?" Kise asked with worry when Aomine has not move from his seemd he was thinking about something in is mind. when finally Aomine's eyes turned to look at Kise.

"It's time to work, Kise" Aomine said before he turned to look at Holly. It was the same look as Kuroko and it made Holly thought maybe she should have run for her life. It wasn't helping her either when they were in one of the dangerous part of the city. _Wait a minute, Kuroko came out from the building over there and that building was known for its bad reputation _Holly thought in her mind.

"Aominecchi. I can't do this" Kise begged and he also turned to look at Holly.

"What's going on?" Holly asked both of the male in front of her. "Aomine?"

She saw Aomine pull out a gun from his pocket. It was a small semi-automatic gun in his hand and he pointed that gun to Holly.

"Do you know what my job is, Holly?" Aomine asked her coldly.

"Job?" Holly was frozen in her spot as she watch the gun in Aomine's hand.

"I have to make sure that you are not a threat to us. I have to make sure that I could trust you" Aomine told her as if he recited the same line over and over again throughout his whole life.

"you just said that all of you trust me" Holly tried to said the word but her throat felt dry in front of Aomine.

"That was before I know. You are our mission" she heard Aomine said.

"Aominecchi—"."Shut up Kise. This is my job" Aomine cut him harshly. "Why don't you tell me?" he turned to look at Holly.

"Tell you what?" Holly was a bit frantic at this point. Aomine really looked like he could kill her at any moment.

"You still play dumb?" Aomine said to her. the index finger that hold the trigger started to move slowly.

"I really don't understand what you are talking about!" Holly looked like she was almost crying at this point. She saw Kise avoided her eyes when she tried to ask his help.

"I kinda like you" Aomine suddenly said. Holly could feel her cheek slightly colored at his confession. How could he confessed to her with a gun pointed at his direction?. And how could she felt giddy when Aomine confessed to her with a gun pointed at her?

"But… I have to say Good bye" she heard Aomine said before he pulled the trigger.

* * *

**AN:** this is the chapter seven. I hope you still read this story

Next chapter:

what did Kuroko tell Aomine about Holly?

What Kuroko had done before she met Holly?

and the continuation of this arc

**I am open to any suggestion about this story. just tell me if you have any idea for the next chapter. if possible, I would put it in the next arc**

Please leave a review for this chapter after you read it. help me to light up my mood in my finals week and I hope my next update would be on Akashi's birthday(if I am in a good mood. engineering final exam could made me hate my laptop because it turned out to be a forbidden fruitthat I shouldn't touch but I want to touch)


	8. A Remembrance of Zinnia part three

Chapter 8

disclaimer: I do not own Kurobasu and any other character except for the OC I made

-x-

"Why did you tell Daiki about her?" Akashi asked Kuroko, who has stayed quiet since they have left Aomine and Kise in the alley.

"I wasn't thinking anything" Kuroko turned to look at Akashi. He noticed her eyes were slightly cloudy even when her expressions were cold and not showing any emotion. "I only believe what was the best for the mission"

"Is that why you went to that building without informing me?"

"They have been following Akashi-kun since you have arrived at the hotel. It seemed they are working for her" Kuroko clenched her hand and she looked at the traffic in her windows. "It will be natural for me to dispose them"

"What if I told you that she is their target? And we are helping the real enemy by killing her?" Akashi watched Kuroko's eyes widened as she slowly turned to look at him. "This is the first time I saw you act without thinking first."

"Why didn't you tell me, Seijuro?" Kuroko raised her voice and she grabbed the front side of Akashi's suit. "I just told Aomine-kun that—he will kill her!"

Akashi pull Kuroko to his side and he put his hand on top of Kuroko's head. He could feel Kuroko was slightly shaken and he gently play with her hair. "You should believe in Daiki. He is your partner"

"Akashi-kun, is there a possibility that she—" Akashi saw Kuroko swallow really hard before continuing "that she wasn't part of our enemy?"

"I don't know" Akashi answered honestly. "It would depend on which side she would take"

"I have a request, Akashi-kun" Kuroko suddenly said to Akashi. whatever request she had in her mind, Akashi had no doubt that she would do it, with or without his concern.

-x-

"Aominecchi!" Kise screamed when Aomine finally pulled the trigger. Kise grabbed Aomine's hand and he tried to make Aomine to let go of his gun. "Where did you get the gun?"

"It was on the bed with wrapped with a red ribbon around it" Aomine said as he glared at the person in front of him.

"Because I know you would like a present wrapped in a red ribbon"

"What are you doing in here? And how come everybody could enter my room just like that?" Aomine sourly asked as he raised his gun once more.

"Are you going to act like that around your old pal?" the man with glasses said to Aomine. he has shifty eyes and the way he smiled always reminded Aomine of a fox. "It's a good thing that you missed. Or you will be living in regret for the rest of your life.

"I didn't miss. You pull her aside. Are you that desperate to die? I will be happy to grant your wish" Aomine told the man as he raised his gun to that man's face.

"The big boss told you to kill her?" he said as he step in front of Holly and walk to where Aomine was standing. "Are you going to do as he told you to?"

"I will do everything as he ordered. I will not let Tetsu to stain her hand to kill this woman"

"So this is more about your partner rather than your big boss. Have you really asked her about this woman's mistake?" he saw Aomine displayed various emotions in his eyes. He trusted his partner but he harbored affection towards this woman. Kuroko didn't tell him to kill her, she just remind him the possibility of her being in the enemies' side.

"Kise" Aomine said to the blonde next to him without diverting his eyes from the glasses man in front of him. "Go call Tetsu and ask her about what we should do with her" Aomine looked very disgusted as he said 'her'

"Right away, Aominecchi" Kise pulled out his phone and dialed the number in it. Kuroko answered the phone on the first ring.

"What do you want, Ryouta?" instead of Kuroko, Kise could hear Akashi's voice answering the call. Kise cover the phone. he whimpered as he passed the phone to Aomine.

"Akashi, I want to talk to Tetsu" Aomine snatched the phone from Kise's hand and his eyes still looking at his target.

"Tetsumi is busy" Aomine could hear gun shots and people screaming from the other side of the phone. Kuroko must be 'busy' doing her 'job'; it would be pretty reckless on Kuroko's side if she thought she could finish the enemy on her own. "Do what you want with the girl"

"Should I kill her?" Aomine felt like swallowing a bitter pill when he asked Akashi. He could see Holly's scared eyes and the guy in front of Holly was carefully watching his every move.

"We don't need her anymore" Aomine gritted his teeth as Akashi said that. He slowly pushed the trigger with his index finger. He could see Holly closed her eyes peacefully, this time she seemed ready to be shot by him.

"Aomine-kun" Aomine could hear Kuroko's voice from the other side of the phone. "We don't need her" he heard Kuroko's voice was a little bit out of breath. "We don't need her to be dead. We need Aomine-kun to protect her. She is the true Heir of Rayleigh fortune"

"What are you saying Tetsu? You said that—"Aomine stopped talking when he saw Holly reached out the phone in his hand and took it from his hand.

"When did you find out about the truth?"

"The first time I met you in the food stall. You have the same face as your brother." Holly heard Kuroko said as she heard gun shots from the phone.

"I assumed the only person in your group that knew nothing about this, is Aomine" Holly said as she glanced at Aomine. She saw the hurt, confusion but mostly betrayed expression in Aomine's face.

"Miss Rayleigh, please stay alive. Your brother wouldn't want you to die and have that person continue using his name" Holly heard Kuroko said. She couldn't hear anymore gunshots or people screaming from the phone.

"I don't think that would be possible. I have been running for a long time" Holly sadly said. She tried so hard to escape from various assassins and that person's power has became greater than before. It would be easy for that person to find her.

"Then, Let Aomine-kun handle the rest" Kuroko suggested.

"I can't do that. Aomine will not be able to win against him" Then she felt the phone in her hand get snatched away from her hand.

"Give me the instruction, Tetsu. I have Kise and the shifty eyes with me"

"Why you always call me shifty eyes?" the man with glasses complained to Aomine.

"Does Aomine-kun want to fight or to protect?"

Without hesitating, Aomine answered "I want to protect her"

"Then Aomine-kun should have stayed with Holly-san until Mibuchi-kun and I finish our job. Only Aomine-kun would be able to handle Holly-san"Aomine heard Kuroko told him.

"Got it" Aomine said before he ended the call. He turned to look at the blushing Holly and he gave a light path on her back.

"Aomine, your boss told me to take care of the sniffing police in this city. You shouldn't tell him that I was here" the glasses man said as he ended the phone call, Aomine assumed it was from Akashi.

"Shut up Imayoshi. Your holiday is over the moment you saw me" Aomine snapped harshly.

"I should pay a visit to my old pal in Washington." Imayoshi looked tired already when he imagined the trip he had to take. "Do you know any good place to buy donuts, Miss Rayleigh?" he turned to look at Holly.

"Call me Miss Bells please. I haven't been in Washington in a long time" Holly answered apologetically

"oh well. I better googled the place to get the best donuts in Washing. Please excuse me" Imayoshi said before he took his leave.

"Why do you choose to protect me? It will be dangerous and he will not think twice to kill you when he saw you with me"

"There is nothing more dangerous when you work with the red-haired dragon" Aomine mumbled.

"Huh?" Holly said with confusion was clearly written on her face.

"Don't worry about it. I am pretty strong too" she heard Aomine said. She could see his face has colored slightly when he said that. And she could feel her cheek heating up too when he imagine Aomine as a knight to protect her.

"Aominecchi, what should I do?" Kise felt uncomfortable to be between the two people in front of him but he had nowhere to go. Neither Akashi nor Kuroko called him and instructed him to do something.

"They forget about you?" Holly felt like laughing when she saw the remorse on Kise's face.

"This is Akashi we are talking about. There is no way he would forget about something" Aomine told Kise with a lazy and calm tone. He put the gun back inside his jacket when he remembered about something. "What did you do this morning that made Akashi angry?"

"You could tell?" Kise screeched.

"Just guessing" Aomne mumbled.

"I called Akashi the first thing in the morning when I found something about Rayleigh's family. Kurokocchi picked it up and I told her that someone planned to kill Akashicchi."

"Baka, if you told Tetsu, she would instantly go and dispose them" Aomine lightly punched Kise's shoulder.

"Kill? Dispose?" Holly was confused when she heard the conversation between two male in front of her.

"ah, Kurokocchi is Akashicchi's personal guard. And we are Kurokocchi's partner slash guards" Kise said to the confused Holly. But that only made her even more confused. "And Kurokocchi is the best at assassinating the enemy with her invisibility" Kise added.

"That girl is an assassin?" Aomine could see the horror on Holly's face and she actually took a step back away from Aomine and Kise. "Then, what about the two of you?"

"Are you going to run from us?" Aomine asked with an annoyed tone directed to Holly.

"Who are you people?" finally Holly found the right question to ask.

"I should have asked the same question to you" Aomine said as he flicked Holly's forehead. "I don't really care about who you were. You are Holly Bells now". It was rare for Aomine to say the right thing at the right time. But this time, it made Holly glad that she knew about him.

"Aominecchi, I think we should run from this place" Kise stepped in between Aomine and Holly as he pointed to the car behind Aomine. They saw the passengers rolled down the window and just like in action movie, they pulled out an automatic gun that was pointed at the three of them.

"Are you kidding me?" Aomine shouted.

"I don't think they 'kid' you, Aomine" Holly cringed at the loudness from Aomine's voice. She saw Aomine pulled out the gun from his jacket and he pointed the said gun to that car.

"Holicchi, we should run" Kise whispered as he pulled Holly away from Aomine.

"Aomine!" Holly also pulled Aomine's hand as the three of them run. Just in time to dodge the bullets that came at their direction.

"The hell? Let me go Holly" Aomine protested. But he let himself get dragged by the duo despite his protest.

"You will not survive! We should run and called the police for help" Holly shouted at Aomine.

"Do you think the police will help us? They shoot us in the middle of the broad daylight and you expect the police to help us?" Aomine shouted back.

"Yes! They are the police" Holly shouted back.

"Have you ever thought that when you go to the police, that person would be able to trace you?"

"Aomine-kun! " the three of them heard Kuroko's voice ahead of them. They saw Kuroko and Hayama were standing in front of them. Hayama was standing there with a machine gun on his hand and Kuroko with two pieces of Beretta guns in her hand.

"Duck!" Aomine pushed Holly's head down as Hayama ran passed them and started to shoot at whoever had shot them first.

"Kurokocchi" Kise couldn't be happier to saw Kuroko helping them.

"Kise-kun, please enter the white SUV. Mibuchi-kun will tell you what to do. Aomine-kun should enter the Black SUV. Hayama-kun would drive you to the safe house along with Miss Rayleigh" Kuroko said when they have stopped running.

"I refused to hide" Holly suddenly said when Kuroko had finished talking. "I want to fight too"

"Hollicchi. You should go and hide with Aomine-kun" Kise said to her.

"No! the best way to kill that person was to use me. And I am willingly agree be used by your team as a bait to lure him out" Holly insisted. Aomine was about to pull Holly away from Kuroko when he saw the large black spot on her shoulder.

"Tetsu, your shoulder" Aomine said as he saw the spot has different kind of black on her shoulder.

"Kurokocchi- LOOK OUT" Kise shouted when he saw one of the shooters was able to run passed Hayama and has his gun pointed at Kuroko's direction. In an instant, Kuroko raised the gun and fired it at the same time as that shooter pulled the trigger. Holly watched in horror when the bullet went through the shooter's forehead as he fell to the ground.

"Tetsumi" Holly heard Aomine's voice and she turned to saw Kuroko also fall to the ground. She saw the blood in Aomine's hand when he held Kuroko. "How could this went passed Akashi?" Aomine mumbled.

"Is she okay?" Holly asked Aomine.

"Dunno, but Akashi will be pissed" Aomine said as he held Kuroko in his arm. Holly felt a pang of jealousy when she saw how tender Aomine became when Kuroko was involved.

"Hoaa, Tetsu-chan."

"Hayama, how could you let that guy went through you" Aomine was clearly angry when he asked the orange haired man that had just came back from the alley.

"It wasn't my fault! He threw a knife at my direction. His use the time between me dodging the knife to go passed me and directly aimed at Tetsu-chan" Hayama defended.

"He was targeting Tetsu" Aomine mumbled. He felt even more suspicious at the situation he was in. they knew that Holly was standing right next to Kuroko, but why did they shoot Kuroko instead of Holly?

"Aomine, Kuroko said that the both of us and Hayama would use the black SUV and Kise along with Mibuchi used the white one" Holly said, which broke Aomine's train of thought and he turned to look at her. "Then, what about Kuroko?"

"She is coming with me"

The new voice that has just joined the group made Aomine and Hayama froze in their place. Akashi was walking to their direction and he wasn't in the best mood. It looked like he could kill someone by the way his heterochromatic eyes shine looked at the surrounding around Kuroko. He kneeled down as Aomine gave Kuroko to him.

"Daiki"

"Yes!" Aomine answered in military style. He saw Akashi looked like he wanted to kill Holly by the way he was looking at her.

"You will go to the evening party at Rayleigh's, tonight." Akashi ordered. "Bring her with you"

"Are you crazy? You want me to bring her to the lion's den?" Aomine was definitely scared of Akashi but he was trying his best to protect Holly.

"Akashi-kun" Aomine and Akashi heard Kuroko's weak voice. Kuroko raised her hand to touch Akashi's cheek as a faint smile appeared on her lips.

"We will finish this tonight and we will go back to Japan tomorrow" Akashi told Kuroko. His eyes went to look at Aomine to carefully watch his expression. Aomine was clearly enraged at one sided decision Akashi has made. "You have no right to be angry, Daiki. She volunteered"

"Aomine-kun" he heard Kuroko called him. Despite her body was injured, she tried her best to stay awake and look at Aomine. "I am sorry"

"You should rest, Tetsu. I will bring the end of this annoying bastard" Aomine said to Kuroko as he touched Kuroko's hand. He saw Kuroko nodded weakly before giving one last glance to Holly.

"I believed you will not betray us, Daiki" Akashi said one last time before he went with Kuroko and put her in the front seat. He came back from his car and gave a picture to Aomine. Aomine's eyes widened and he gritted his teeth as he saw the picture Akashi had given to him.

"it was Tetsumi's idea to not telling you about this." Akashi started as he watched the pained expression in Aomine's face. "It seemed it was the wrong thing to do" Akashi continued.

"Is this for real?" Aomine forced the words out of his mouth.

"Yes. Ryouta will give you the detail once he figured the last piece of that puzzle"

" I don't know how Tetsu thought that it would be the best for me if I didn't know" Aomine said as he put the picture inside his jacket. "But I will not betray Tetsu"

"Kotaro will brief you about the place and provided you with the weapon you will need. If you ever think of betraying Tetsumi, I will not hesitate to kill you" Akashi said before he went back to his car and speed off with the injured Kuroko in his car. Aomine turned to look at Hayama before he went to grab Holly's hand and pull her to the black SUV. Kise and Mibuchi were already gone to find the last piece of the missing puzzle.

"Where should we go, Aomine?' Holly asked him. She was confused when she watched the exchange between Aomine and Akashi and how tense Aomine had become after he talk with Akashi.

"You should ask that question to me, Miss Rayleigh" Kotaro answered as he entered the car. "But I will not answer anything even if you asked" he added before he hit the gas and the car speed off at a very high speed.

-x-

"Akashi-kun?" Kuroko asked when she finally regained her consciousness. She saw that she was back at the hotel and the bandage on her shoulder was replaced and she saw her bloody clothes were at the table beside her.

"How are you feeling, Tetsumi?" Kuroko saw Akashi was in his white collared shirt. She could see a little blood stain on his shirt and the tired look on his face.

"I feel fine. Did the wound reopened?" she couldn't tell with the bandage was wrapped around the shoulder and both of her arms. And it seemed Akashi has given her painkillers because she still felt drowsy.

"Yes." Akashi said as he took a seat next to Kuroko's bed. "And you will not leave the house for the whole week until Takao demand that you are completely healed"

"What about Aomine-kun? Will you send him to the party?" Kuroko watched the expression on Akashi's face. It clearly showed that he was sending Aomine to the evening party at Rayleigh's.

"It will be safe for her to be there. That guy will not be at the party" she heard Akashi told her.

"It wasn't determined yet. Kise-kun still searching for the last information about that guy" Kuroko tried to sit up but Akashi hold her down.

"Kise has revealed the last piece of that puzzle when he called you this morning. The late Mr. Rayleigh never had a daughter" Akashi told her as he put his hand on her forehead. "You should go back to sleep."

"About my request, Akashi-kun" Kuroko tried to sat on the bed once again as she fight the weight on Akashi's hand on her forehead. "Please let me do it"

"On one condition" Akashi said to Kuroko as he helped Kuroko to sit on the bed. Kuroko nodded and Akashi whispered his term of agreement to her. Several emotions went passed Kuroko's face. Disbelief, anger then determination before Kuroko answered.

"Let's go to the party then. Aomine-kun will be surprised to see us in there" Kuroko said to Akashi. A small, yet sad, smile appeared on her face. She put her arm around Akashi's neck as he picked her up and helped her to stand on her feet. She looked at him gently as she stand on her toes as her face tried to reach out to his face.

"Kurokocchi! Look what I just found" Kise entered the room with the magnetic card key he made on his was to Kuroko's room. it is an easy thing for him to made a duplicate card key as long as he had seen the original code inside the original keys. It should have been the perfect entrance if only Kise had the right timing.

Upon entering the room, Kise saw something that he shouldn't have seen and he shrieked before he ran out of Kuroko's room. Mibuchi, who had come later, raised his eyebrow as Kise ran and hide behind his back. He also heard the high pitched shrieked from Kise as he opened the door to the main room*.

"What did you do this time, Ryo-chan?" Mibuchi asked the frightened blond behind him. He heard the door opened and Akashi come out of Kuroko's room with a gun on his hand. Despite being smaller than Mibuchi and Kise, Akashi was able to made them cowering in fear as he raised his gun to their face.

"You know Sei-chan, I had nothing to do with this" Mibuchi raised both of his arm. But Kise had a tight grip on the hem of his shirt that it was impossible for him to escape.

"I promise you Akashicchi. I will forget what I just see and I will atone my mistake with anything but my life" Kise said it out loud as he took a peek from behind Mibuchi's shoulder.

"Is that so, Ryouta?" Akashi said as he lowered his gun. "Then I have to make sure you REALLY forget before deciding on your punishment"

" What if you let Ryo-chan here to tell you about the latest discovering on Rayleigh's family before he forget about it" Mibuchi suggested. Kise nodded furiously behind him as his agreement.

"Is that you, Kise-kun?" Mibuchi and Kise saw Kuroko in her robe and she looked like she was about to passed out anytime as she stumble on her way out from her room. Akashi catch her before she could kiss the ground, but the front side of her robe was slightly opened and it was enough for Mibuchi to understand why Kise was shrieking and begging for his life.

"Ryo-chan" Mibuchi averted his eyes from Kuroko before Akashi could realize. "it was nice to know you"

-x-

* * *

*** **in Royal Suite room. it was really like an apartment. inside that room, they have two rooms(could be three room or even only one room) one living room, a kitchen and an office(and they could also have more than one bathroom). so, Akashi and Kuroko stayed in the same suite room. not in the same "regular" room. as for Aomine and Kise, I was told by my friend that there are two type of hotel. one is the "all-suite hotel"(the one Akashi stayed) and the other one was normal hotel with one bedroom in it. from the start, Aomine stayed in this one-bedroom hotel(and yes, they exist. this type of room also part of suite room in every hotel. and it is much cheaper than the one Akashi stayed. but still more expensive than deluxe room). inside that one bedroom was a living room, one bathroom and one bedroom.

one of my friend asked me about this "why Aomine stayed in different hotel than Akashi? I thought every hotel has their suite room"

**AN:**

I have good news and bad news(please bear with the lenghty amount for my random note for this chapter)

the good news is.. I still update weekly

bad news? one of the hard subject that I should have studied lecturer told me that I don't have enough attendance percentage to attend the final exam in his class. usually(and this rule applied to every year) the maximum absence was 3 times. but for this year, he forget to tell the class that the maximum absence was TWO times. I could have been absence for three times IF I have perfect attendance on the Tutorial class(which is complimentary. and who wanted to attend a class on 7 pm until 9 pm at night?)

so, I will be repeating that class(ergh with the same lecturer too) and I have enough time this weekend to I decided to veint my frustration to write

although, this chapter was splitted into two part. and the second part would be(hopefully) around Akashi's birthday.

so, I hope you guys could understand what I was trying to tell in this arc. because when I read it all over again, it was really complicated before I reveal all of the real problem. which will come in the next chapter also, the main idea for this story came from after I saw Zinnia flower. you could always google the meaning of Zinnia flower .

**_Please leave a review. your review will really support me_**


	9. A Remembrance of Zinnia part four

Disclaimer: I do not own Kurobasu. also every OC name is a spontanious name that I thought and it didn't have anything to do if you know a person with the same name in this chapter

* * *

"Why am I supposed to use this crap?" Aomine said for the fourth time in that hour when he had Hayama brought the suit. It is a normal black suit with a golden tie. Hayama told him to do something with his hair, but Aomine refused to let him touch his hair.

"It is an evening party, what do you expect? A t-shirt and short pants" Hayama told him sarcastically as he gave the final touch to Aomine's suit.

"Not this kind of stuff. Where should I put my gun?" Aomine asked before Hayama left the room while holding a big bag on his hand.

"You are not supposed to bring any kind of weapon in there. I thought you are the one that should have live in the 'upper class' life" Hayama told Aomine as he put a quote on 'upper class' as he spoke.

"Upper class my ass, that's should have been Midorima and Satsuki's part" Aomine mumbled. Then he remembered that he had not called Momoi, not even once, since he had arrived in New York.

"Crap, Satsuki will kill me"

"Who is Satsuki?" Holly asked as she came out from her changing room. She was using the same gold-colored as Aomine used as his tie and she also did nothing to her hair. The dress fell around her knee and the heels she used really matched on the color of her hair.

"Satsuki is the noisiest woman I have ever known" Aomine told her with a calm and lazy tone. But deep down inside, Holly could see the deep affection he had when he said her name.

"So you don't have anything to do with Kuroko?"

"Are you crazy? if I ever thought of Tetsu in a way more than a friend." Aomine looked at his surrounding as if he expected someone suddenly appear and killing him. "well,I have thought of Tetsu in that way, but Tetsu is Tetsu"

"I don't understand" Holly was a loss with the amount of Tetsu Aomine used.

"You could say that Tetsu is like a dog." Aomine said as he imagined Tetsu with her soft paw and little dog ear. He immediately shake his head to clear the forbidden image from his head.

"Huh?"

"Never mind. We should go before Akashi found out that we are late while we are representing them in the party" Aomine said as he pulled Holly out of his room. He saw Hayama pointed at his own ear before Aomine closed the door.

-x-

_Meanwhile in JFK airport_

"What should I do? My English is not that good" a woman with her brown jacket and black hat. Her hair was covered in her baby blue scarf and she used her black rimmed glasses. She has just come down from the airplane. "Maybe I should have called first, but I want it to be a surprise"

"Excuse me Miss" a security airport greeted her.

"Ah Yes" she was hoping that she didn't get into any trouble by pacing around the entrance gate with her outfit and her big pink suitcase.

"Can I help you with anything?" The security asked her. But all she could hear was the 'help you' part.

"_I have seen this in a movie. They will take me to a small cubicle and they will interrogate me" _she thought in her mind as she tried to form a word, a sentence, anything that could help her.

"I—okay" she formed an 'o' with index finger and her thumb and she didn't forget to add a big smile on her face as she looked at the security airport.

"Excuse me Miss, May I see you passport?"

"ah-Passport?" she tried to pronounce the word in her mouth. She turned to her handbag as she tried to find the little book beneath all of her cosmetics and stuff. But she couldn't find that passport and she started to freak out.

"_I am in foreign country and I might lose my passport with a security airport suspecting me" _she wanted to cry. Her effort to surprise her friend has turned into the way she never imagined before.

"She is with me, Sir. She couldn't understand English very well." She heard someone said in very good English accent as that someone held her by her shoulder.

"She couldn't show the passport in her hand, I am afraid I have to questioned her in my office" the security wanted to grab the woman's hand but that man stopped him by showing him the passport in his hand.

"She left the passport with me before she went to the toilet." the security checked the password on his hand as he looked at the blond man in front of him.

"What about your passport?" he asked the blond man as he returned the passport to the woman.

"I was born and raised here. You could have my social security number" the man said as he pulled out a card from the back of his pocket as he showed it to the security airport.

"Okay, ?" he wasn't convincing at the name he read on the card.

"Are you going to mock my name now? I could report you to your boss that you disrespect me"

"I am sorry Mr. Jett. You could proceed to go with your girlfriend" the security said as he walked away from the two of them.

"Momocchi, what are you doing in here?" she heard the not-so-mysterious man asked her.

"Ki-chan. I came here because I heard Tetsu-chan was hurt. Is she okay?" the woman removed her scarf and her hat. And her pink hair was flowing as she removed her glasses.

"What about Midorimacchi? I thought Akashicchi told you to stay in the office?" Kise said as he helped to bring Momoi's suitcase.

"I just took off? Beside, I still have my Visa to America from my last mission" Momoi told Kise as she walk beside him to the arrival gate.

"Akashicchi will be very angry to you when he heard about this"

"It's a good thing that Sei-chan needed her today" Mibuchi came behind Aomine when Momoi and him went passed the arrival gate.

"Need me? For what Reo-kun?" Momoi was confused as she saw Mibuchi gave her a small tablet as he took the hold of Momoi's suitcase.

"I am afraid that you have to work immediately" Mibuchi told Momoi when he saw Momoi scanned the documents in her hand. She gasped when she read the last part of her documents.

"Do I have to do this, Reo-kun?" Momoi asked as she put the tablet down and she look at Mibuchi and Kise.

"Tetsumi-chan was the one who should do that. But her injuries unable her make the shot from far away. It was a good thing when Sei-chan found out that you are on your way here" Mibuchi explained as he left the last part for Momoi to figure it out on herself.

"I wouldn't be able to do this. Tetsumi-chan is the only one that could do this" Momoi gave the tablet back to Mibuchi. She refused to say anything on their way to Akashi's place. Even when Kise tried to started a conversation with her.

"Are you going to let her do that?" Mibuchi asked Momoi when the car stopped on a red light.

" I wish Tetsu-chan didn't have to do that." Momoi answered painfully as she looked at the tablet pc in her hand. "But I couldn't do it either"

"Sei-chan told me that if you didn't do that, Tetsumi-chan will be the one who hold the rifle" Mibuchi looked at Momoi's expression from the rear mirror before he continued "Tetsumi-chan was severely injured after the whole day she was chasing after the assassins that were about to kill Sei-chan. For Tetsumi-chan to hold a long distance sniper rifle in that condition would make her wound worsened"

"I KNOW THAT" Momoi shouted. Mibuchi saw the guilt was eating her and she was almost at her limit to hold the tears in her eyes. 'I know that Reo-kun, but I couldn't shoot if the worst case scenario might happened"

"Only the two of you that were specially trained as a sniper. It's either you do it or Tetsumi-chan" Mibuchi said with the angry tone that was directed to Momoi. Kise understand why Mibuchi was very pissed when he heard the hesitation within Momoi. Kuroko is already at her limit and sniping wasn't that easy too. She had to look for the place, move fast and efficient. This would be difficult for the current condition Kuroko was in.

"Momocchi, you don't have to do it if you don't want to. I am sure Akashicchi will find the other way" Kise tried to ease the situation between Mibuchi and Momoi.

"I am sure Ryo-chan wouldn't understand. But as a soldier, Momo-chan should understand that to kill someone that would be potentially dangerous was an absolute rule" Mibuchi told the two of them. "That's why Momo-chan should pray and wish, for that person to not betray us if she didn't want to pull the trigger.

-x-

The evening party at Rayleigh's household was an extravagant one. There were lots of rich businessmen, models and actresses at that party. Some of them were usually seen at the television while the other was just part of the socialite in the area.

"I feel weird" Aomine mumbled as he and Holly were standing at the corner of the table with a glass of wine in his hand.

"Me too" Holly mumbled as she ate the small cake in her hand.

"You are the rich person. I am just the normal guy who happened to be here" Aomine said as he emptied the wine in his hand. Even when they were going as Akashi's representative, none of the people in that place wanted to start a conversation with them. But Akashi told them that they had to stay at the party until it was over and they don't have to do anything at the party. It should have been an easy thing to just ignore the people and wait until it was over. But Aomine never thought it would bored him to death by waiting and watching.

"I never knew the party would be this long" Holly mumbled. "I never to this kind of party"

"What are you saying?" Aomine asked her.

"I never been to any kind of this high-class party before" Holly said a little too loud to Aomine. Her eyes widened as she saw Aomine put the wine glass in the tray when one of the waiters went passed them.

"What were you saying, Holly?" Aomine turned to grab her hand before Holly could escape. "You were only become a commoner for the past two years. "

"What I am trying to say was. It has been a long time that I forget about this kind of party" Holly said. But that didn't sound too convincing in Aomine's ear.

"I haven't kill anyone empty handed for the past four years, but I still remember how to do it if I had to" Aomine said coldly. "Why can't you remember a party like this? Tetsu could still remember every mission she had done with me. Even before I became part of Akashi's guard"

"You hurting me, Aomine" Holly said as the grip in Aomine's hand started to get tightened. It might leave an ugly mark on her hand. But Aomine hasn't yet to let go of her hand and the dark look in Aoine's eyes started to scare her.

"You hurting her, Aomine-kun" Holly heard someone said before Aomine yelp in pain as he let go of Holly's hand.

"what did you do that for, Tetsu?" Aomine said as he gritted his teeth. Holly noticed Kuroko has stepped into Aomine's shoes. And with her heeled shoes, it would be painful for Aomine's foot.

"You should not hurt Holly-san." Kuroko told Aomine before she moved her feet away from Aomine's.

"But—"."Daiki, go get me two glasses of shrimp cocktail"

"But they don't serve that!' Aomine turned to look at the red-haired man that has just came. But Akashi's look was clearly leaving no room for argument. "I will ask the chef to made it"

"Thank you, Akashi-kun" Kuroko said to him. She turned to look at Holly while she hold Holly's hand.

"Miss Holly Rayleigh—no, Miss Margareth Sanders" Kuroko said. Holly's face clearly showed that she wasn't expect Kuroko to say that. If she still held the tiny plate for her cakes, it would shatter to the ground after she heard that name.

"How do you know about that name?"

"Kise-kun investigate that the late never had a daughter. He only had two sons, and one of the son died two years ago" Kuroko started. "The wife of the deceased Mr. Rayleigh Junior went missing one year before his death"

"What are you trying to say, Kuroko?"

"You can't possibly be connected to the Mr. Rayleigh Junior" Kuroko finished. Even when Kuroko was smaller than her, there was something about the way she looked at her, that made Holly want to hide in a hole and stay there, forever.

"What are you saying, I am the Mr. Rayliegh's wife" Holly said.

"Holly-san, please don't lie." Kuroko said as she pulled out a picture from her bag. "At least not to Aomine-kun"

"What is this picture about?" Holly's hands were shaking as she saw the picture in her hand.

"This was you before you got into a plastic surgery three years ago. You were young Mr. Rayleigh's wife's friend."

"No, I am Holly". Holly insisted.

"I have met with Holly Rayleigh before she disappeared. She wanted me to call her Megan, rather than her first name" Kuroko told her. "She believed that her first name was too pure for someone like her"

"So, you are the 'Hina doll' she used to talk about before she run out from that house" Holly mumbled. She saw the picture again and tears started to come on the corner of her eyes. "It's been a long time since I saw this picture"

"Margareth-san, we could help you out from this problem" Kuroko said.

"Please call me Holly. I promised my best friend that I would live by her name and stayed by her husband's side"

"That was your plan, until you came back and found the young Mr. Rayleigh was dead" Akashi came as he gave the glass of mineral water to Kuroko. Kuroko pulled out a few pill from her purse before she swallow those pills then drink the water.

"Are you okay, Kuroko?" Holly was concern by the amount of pills and how pale Kuroko has became after she took those pills.

"I am fine" Kuroko gave the glass back to Akashi as he left the two women to continue their conversation. "Then, Why are you working together with Mr. Alex?"

"If you could investigate my past and gathered all of that information. You should find out that Alex is a fake 'Rayleigh' too. And to answer your question: no, I am not working with Alex"

"That's funny. If you were not working for him, why did you have a receiver on your hairpin?" Akashi said to Holly as he suddenly appeared again and stood up in front of Kuroko. She looked at Akashi and he nodded to her before he left Kuroko to deal with Holly as he went inside the house. Kuroko's eyes widened as the information finally clicked.

The first day, Holly was definitely Margareth Sanders. She had forgotten about Kuroko but Kuroko could still saw the recognition in her eyes the first time she saw Kuroko. they have met briefly in the past and it was the right expression in Holly's eyes.

But the Holly Kuroko met when she had come out from the building where she worked at, she definitely didn't recognize Akashi. Akashi and Rayleigh's family has worked together for the longest time. and Margareth was Holly's best friend. She always come to every family party Rayleigh had made in the past. She should have known about Akashi since she had known about how the real Holly used to call Kuroko as 'Hina Doll'. The term that she decided to use to call Kuroko. she had been fascinated with Kuroko's expression when she compared it to the famous 'Hina Dolls' in Akashi's house.

"Why?" it was the only thing that Kuroko wanted to know. lots of questions in her mind and only one word that she came out from her mouth.

"To be honest, I like you" the fake Holly said before she tilted her head. "And it was a god thing you were injured. It would be easy to kill you"

"Where did you hide the real Holly?" Kuroko was a bit cautious when she asked this. Even when Kuroko had the skill to kill man twice her size, with her injury and she was just drinking the pain killers, it would be possible that she is the one that would ended up dead.

"I would never consider being this bitch. Not until the copper haired man told me that he would gave me one million dollar. It was pretty easy to pretend to be her." The woman touched her cheek and as she pulled her cheek, Kuroko could see the prostatic skin being stretched. she is definitely a con artist by the way she almost fooled Kuroko. and the best one too. "that man told me this should have been an easy job since I have lived with that idiot Margareth after she told me that she used up her money to make herself looked like her best friend, Holly. she left her money to become poor because she wanted to help her friend? That bitch could have everything but she threw it all away because of her stupid ideals. This Holly woman is also very stupid. She said that she would give all the money to her brother's husband too"

"Holly-san never wanted to succeed the Rayleigh's fortune. She told me that she married young Mr. Rayleigh because she wanted to be with him." Kuroko told the woman in front of her. "Just like Margareth-san. She never wanted to be an heiress of a large company."

"She is just a stupid girl who always looked at a photo of a dead guy" the fake Holly said as she picked up a small knife from under her gown. "And I like this dress, too bad I have to rip it open. That friend of yours also was being too stupid in love with me. He will believe if I told him that you bleed out from stumbling to the ground". Holly swing the knife to Kuroko's direction, she aimed for the wounded shoulder.

BANG

A perfectly aimed shot hit her hand and Holly dropped the knife as she realized a sniper was somewhere watching. She completely lost her right hand with the amount of blood pouring from it.

"THAT WOMAN IS BLEEDING" one of the guests screamed. All of the sudden, the party guests started to run to get out from the house. Amongst the chaos, Holly also tried to escape and Kuroko tried to stop her by grabbing her hand but someone pushed her and she lost her balance immediately after she let go of the fake Holly's hand.

"aah" Kuroko tried to cling into something before she got stepped on during the chaos. Luckily, someone catch her before she fell down.

"You should really be more careful, Tetsu" Aomine said as he grabbed Kuroko's waist.

"Aomine-kun"

"Let's get out of here, Kurokocchi" Kise said. in his arm, Kuroko could see an unconscious woman that looked like she was under the influence of drug. But there is something familiar about that woman, which Kuroko had seen before.

"Is that, Margareth-san?" Kuroko asked as Aomine picked her up.

"Margareth, Holly, whatever her name is" Aomine mumbled. "At least, she is the good girl"

"Aominecchi's first love was crushed when Margareth-san that pretend to be Holicchi admitted that the last time she met Aomine was on the steakhouse" Kise said as they walked calmly. It was really different as the other guests were trying to escape from the house.

"Didn't say she is my first love." Aomine glared at Kise.

"But Aominecchi gave Holicchi the 'I want you' look" Kise jokingly said.

"Shut up Kise. She just reminded me of someone"

"Aomine-kun, what about the con asrtist who pretend to be Holly-san?" Kuroko asked the man who had her in his arm.

"ah, her name is Stella. She doesn't have any power to do anything. It would be lucky if she could survive" Aomine told her. He saw Kuroko looked a little bit sad. "Don't worry about her. She got what she deserved. You should help this friend of your to get better"

"Thank you, Aomine-kun"

-x-

"At the other part of the house, A woman was desperately running for her life as she opened the door to a certain office inside the house.

"You have to help me! I am going to bleed to death" the woman said to the copper haired man in front of her.

"For an easy job like this, you weren't able to finish this very simple and easy job. You are really useless" he said to the woman in front of him.

"She is smarter than she look! It was unavoidable" the woman desperately said. "You have to help me. I am going to-"

_BANG _

"I don't need a stupid woman" the copper haired man said after he shoots the woman's head with his gun. The bullet went through her forehead as her eyes looked at the ceiling. The life that used to be in her eyes was gone.

"You should have killed her yesterday" another voice entered the room.

"What can I do, for you, Mr Akashi?"

"Where is he, Alex?" Akashi asked the copper haired man in front of him. Even when their conversation was casual, the killer look in both of their eyes was dominating the aura in the room.

"This room would be impossible for the best sniper to aim their gun at me. But to answer your question, he isn't here" Alex said as he raised the glass in his hand. "He went out of this country the moment he knew you are here"

"Mr. Akashi, I think I understand why the two of you wanted that girl to be your ally' Alex said after he emptied the glass in his hand. "Even I wanted her to be mine if you have known her since a long time ago. She is definitely the best undercover guard you ever had"

"You have been talking to him.' he heard Akashi spoke. Alex looked up and saw something was changing in Akashi's eyes. He looked even more lethal than usual.

"So what? If you die now, she would be mine. You have no gun and no way to protect yourself with snipers hiding in the nearest building" Alex said as he raised his gun and pointed at Akashi. As soon as he did that, he pushed the trigger.

_BANG_

"How—" Alex said as he saw the crimson pool on his chest.

"You regular sniper would not be able to shoot you. But Satsuki is not your average sniper" Alex saw a devilish smile appeared on Akashi's face.

"He told me that you would always have another trick. I should have done more research about your other pretty guards" Alex said before he cough and blood coming from his mouth. The bullet went through the right side of his shoulder. He eyed the gun on the floor, but he wouldn't be able to pick the gun unless he knew where the sniper was.

"What did he plan to do?" Akashi asked Alex again.

"You should have helped me if you want information from me" Alex said as he pressed the wound on his shoulder. "You will not find any clue if I die"

"But I have the satisfaction" Akashi said as he raised his hand. "To know that you will not go anywhere near Tetsumi" then he pointed his index finger to Alex's direction.

_BANG _

A bullet went through Alex's chest immediately. Alex's eyes went wide before his body fell forward to the ground. Akashi watched as the pool of blood coming from Alex's body as the body lay there, unmoving.

"It's messy here" Imayoshi appeared on the door and he saw Akashi was watching the guy. Imayoshi always felt grateful that Akashi was on his side, even without doing anything; he could make a hole on someone's chest.

"Clean this up" Akashi told Imayoshi as he walked out from the room.

."What should I tell the cops and agent? A sniper involved in this and two people were killed in a party full of rich and influential people" Imayoshi shouted. But as usual, Akashi ignored him and he kept walking away from Imayoshi."She still used the prosthetic face too" Imayoshi shouted when he saw the face of the woman who was lying dead on the floor.

"Ah well, time to call Sakurai again. It's a good thing he stayed in Washington" Imayoshi shrugged as he also walked out from the said room.

-x-

"The hell are you doing in here, Satsuki?" Aomine said out loud as he walk to the car and saw Momoi has been leaning on that car. Upon seeing Aomine, Momoi run and instantly jumped into him.

"I am glad that you didn't betray us, Dai-chan. I was afraid that I have to shoot you"

"What the hell are you talking about? Let go of me, Satsuki"

"Ahomine! Do you know how worried I was?" Momoi pouted with her hand still around Aomine's neck.

"You are going to choked Tetsu"

Momoi immediately let go of Aomine as she saw Kuroko was cradled on Aomine's hand.

"Please put me down, Aomine-kun"

"I am soo sorry Tetsu-chan. I didn't know that you are there" Momoi hugged her best friend as soon as Kuroko's feet touched the ground. "Are you okay? What about your wound?" Momoi looked at checked all over Kuroko's body.

"I am fine. But Margareth-san needed to go to the hospital as soon as possible" Kuroko tilted her head to Kise, who was standing there with Margareth on his arm.

"Aominecchi, please help me" Kise said. Aomine saw that Kise's hand was slightly shaky as he tried so hard to support the weight of Margareth in his hand.

"You are weak, Kise" Aomine told him before he picked Margareth in his arm.

"Aominecchi, she is taller than the evil-fake- Hollicchi. And I have been using my hand to type since last night" Kise defended.

"She is definitely taller. How could I not realize that" Aomine mumbled as he looked at the sleeping face of Margareth, who had changed her face to looked like Holly. This time, Aomine believed that she is the girl who had fascinated him on the first day he met with her.

"Dai-chan" Momoi saw the look of agony at her childhood friend's face. Aomine definitely have feeling for her.

"I thought that she had changed when she left my room that morning. I should have known that she was a different person"

"It wasn't your fault, Aomine-kun" Kuroko told him. She put her hand on his shoulder. "The woman was a con actress that has been living with Margareth-san for two years. Aomine-kun was a soldier, not a spy"

"That's why you told me to not trust her when I was with the fake one in that alleyway" Aomine turned to look at Kuroko.

"Holly-san" Kuroko shake her head. "No, the real Holly-san would never introduce herself as Holly. She would always tell people that her name is Megan. That's why I know from the beginning that Holly-san is not the real one"

"Huh? I am confused" Momoi mumbled. It was too complicated for her to understand the situation "are you saying that there are two people who pretend to be Holly? The real one is Megan-san, the first fake one would be Margareth-san as Holly-san's best friend. And the other one is the crazy fake Holly-san that I just shot?"

"That's very true Satsuki."another voice joined the group as he answered Momoi's question.

"Akashi-kun" Kuroko was the only person in that group that didn't act like they had just seen a ghost appear.

"We have a plane to catch this morning. " Akashi turned to look at Aomine. "Reo will handle the rest"

"Now, give me the pretty lady. Dai-chan" Mibuchi suddenly appear behind Aomine and he took Holly from Aomine's hand. Kuroko glared at Mibuchi and he immediately helped Kuroko to stand.

"Thank you for being my spotter, Mibuchi-kun" Momoi bowed slightly to Mibuchi as her appreciation.

"No problem at all, Momo-chan"

"When will you be back to Japan?" Momoi asked Mibuchi

"As soon as the problem within Rayleigh is done. The sudden appearance of Holly Rayleigh and the dead of Alex will definitely bring trouble. Which I hope the second son from Rayleigh family will appear and took care of this for me." Then he turned to look at Kuroko. "Do you have anything to say to Eli, Tetsumi-chan?"

"Tetsumi, let's go" Akashi called her when the black Mercedes arrived. Kuroko smiled to Mibuchi as her answered before she went to go to enter the car.

"Who is Eli?" Kise asked to Mibuchi.

"Eli Rayliegh is the second son. He used to flirt with Tetsumi-chan because he was fascinated that Tetsumi-chan look like a Japanese doll. He also used to call her Hina-chan" Mibuchi explained with a teasing smile on his face. He could still remember the way Eli try to catch Kuroko's eyes whenever Kuroko and Akashi visited Rayleigh's house.

"Aren't you have a plane to catch? I heard Akashi's plane will be departed at six in the morning" Imayoshi told the group. Kise look at the watch and it showed three in the morning. And they haven't packed their bag from their hotel room.

"Akashi probably hasn't packed his bag. We still have time" Aomine said lazily.

"About that, before I came here. My bag was already on their way with Tetsumi's bag to the airport" Momoi timidly said. Kise and Aomine's eyes were as big as a saucer

"Why didn't you say that sooner, Satsuki!" Aomine shouted.

"I got text from Tetsu-chan. She said I could go with her and Akashi-kun to the airport." Momoi said as she scrolled through the text message. "And Tetsu-chan said that Akashi-kun will not wait if you were late and he would not pay for the tickets if you were unable to come at the right time. it would be difficult to find free airplane at this date. People already booked the ticket for their vacation."

"What? It is going to take at least two hours before we could arrive at the plane." Aomine protested. Momoi only humming as she gave Aomine her best look of pity to him.

"You better hurry up, Dai-chan" Momoi told him before she went to the car that has been waiting for her . "And good luck, Kise-kun"

"Momocchi, don't leave me" the sound of Kise's desperate call was ignored at the black sedan took off from where it used to park.

"If you want, you could use my motorcycle" Reo offered as he gave the keys to Aomine's hand. "as long as you park it in hangar and put the keys inside locker number 4"

"Thank you, Reocchi" Kise hug Mibuchi before he went to run after Aomine.

"Reo nee-chan. Your motorcycle only has half tank in it. they would only made it to the hotel with that" Hayama said to Mibuchi.

"Really? I haven't realize" Mibuchi said with a knowing smile on his lips. "we should go and bring this woman to the hospital" Mibuchi said to Hayama as he put Holly inside the black SUV car that Aomine should have used in place of Mibuchi's motorcycle.

-x-

* * *

**AN:**

First thing first: thank you for your review for chapter 8. you make me a happy person for the entire week

As promise. this is the update for Akashi's birthday.(and epilouge coming up tomorrow for "Price of Miracle")

Please spend a few second to leave review for this chapter :D (and I am waiting)

_I have this idea to made a christmas chapter for this story. send me any idea or fluff that you want to read for this story._

_and next question would be: should I put it as chapter 10 or should I put that story as one shot?_


	10. Day's Eye part 1

Chapter 10

* * *

Note for this story:

A hacker shares their knowledge and aids systems in becoming more secure while crackers try to break into the systems.

* * *

_You can never run from your past_

_-x-_

_Flashback_

_It was a very cloudy day when she met with the blond man on her way to the market. She saw how empty that man's eyes as he looked into the sky. His clothes were somehow soaked despite the rain hasn't started yet. And his physique was too clean to be a mere homeless person._

"_Excuse me?" she said to that man._

"_I don't need your money." That man answered harshly without looking at her._

"_I know" her answer annoyed him. He turned to look at the girl who had greeted him. He expected to see sadness or pity in her eyes. but her eyes held the same emptiness as his eyes. "That's why I just want to tell you that you will get cold if you keep using those clothes"_

"_I have done a really bad thing. I wish one cold could end all of my misery" he told her. And again, that girl surprised her when she took off her jacket and give it to him._

"_Being dead will never solve anything." She told him as if she spoke to herself. "You are able to solve any problem as long as you are brave enough to face it"_

"_Then, will you help me?" he asked desperately. The way this girl spoke to him made him able to believe that there is such a thing as second chances._

-x-

"Excuse me. I heard Kuroko has come back from America five days ago." Momoi looked up to see Kagami, who had been asking for Kuroko non-stop when she was in America, come with a bucket of twelve red roses flower in his hand.

"Ah, Kagami-kun." Momoi closed the folder in her hand. "Tetsu-chan is not available today"

"eh?" Kagami almost dropped the flower in his hand. But Momoi catch those flower before that happened. "I heard from my boss that Kuroko would be available today"

"Actually, Tetsu-chan would not be available until the end of the week." Momoi told Kagami with a strained smile on her face. "Both her and Akashi-kun were on a business trip"

"She is always on a trip with your boss" Kagami didn't sound too happy when he heard about the news. He had read Kuroko's file and it was clear that Kuroko is one of the guard for Akashi's family. Surely she wasn't required to go anywhere with Akashi?

"Tetsu-chan acted more as Akashi-kun's—"Momoi scrunched her nose as she tried to find the right word "partner rather his guard"

"Partner?"

"Just like Aomine-kun and Tetsu—chan being partner while they do their job. Akashi-kun trusted Tetsu-chan to be his partner" Momoi told Kagami.

"Oi, Satsuki. Tetsu told me that she wanted to have the schedule for the new comer training this Sunday" Kagami could hear Aomine shouted from behind him.

"I already sent it to your mail! You should open your mail, Dai-chan!" Momoi scolded him.

"Too annoying." Aomine answered lazily. "you giving Satsuki flower?" Aomine asked Kagami when he saw the flower in Momoi's hand. for a split second Kagami swore he saw the look in Aomine's eyes turned into his usual cold blooded look. "Roses, eh?"

"This is for Tetsu-chan. Kagami-kun almost dropped this flower to the floor" Momoi told Aomine. Despite knowing that flower belong to Tetsumi, Momoi gaze lovingly at the flower in her hand.

"Tetsu?" Aomine turned to look at Kagami for confirmation. Kagami gulped when he saw the murderous look in Aomine's eyes.

"My boss told me to bring flower when I visit Kuroko." Kagami answered quickly. "She told me that Kuroko would love the flower"

"Tetsu would definitely love this." Aomine snatched the flower from Momoi's hand. "But I wouldn't be able to guarantee what might happened to your life after she accepted the flower" Aomine took a sniff on the flower in his hand.

"Are you going to attack me just because I give your partner a harmless flower?" Kagami asked Aomine. After seeing how precise Aomine could shoot and how fast he could have move. There was the slight fear inside Kagami when he spoke to Aomine.

"I don't mind" Aomine told him as he sneezed after he sniffed the roses. "I was just giving you a friendly advice on how to stay on our good side"

-x-

_Meanwhile on the other part of the city_

"It was really a good thing that the wound on your shoulder wasn't as deep as before. "One of the nurse told Kuroko. "Otherwise, you have to stay in the hospital for further examination, Kuroko-sama"

"How long would it take until I can move normally again?" Kuroko asked the nurse. She examined the wound on her shoulder. twice getting wounded in the same place would definitely make her movement slower.

"I am afraid I don't know, Kuroko-sama. But I would suggest you didn't do any 'field work' until all of your wound is fully healed" the nurse told Kuroko. She is one of the nurses that has known about Kuroko's extra work. When she was a high school student, Akashi found her in dire need of money to continue her study. In exchange for the full scholarship and money per month from Akashi, she had to work with Akashi's family for the rest of her life and she had to be able to keep the secret when she is working with Akashi.

"Thank You, Mayu-san"

"You don't have to thank me, Kuoko-sama" Mayu smiled to Kuroko. "If it's not for Kuroko-sama, I wouldn't be able to become a nurse. If I didn't meet Akashi-sama, I don't know how I would life for today"

"You came alone today?" Kuroko asked her. Usually Mayu always come with Takao or the other nurse she has worked with.

"Takao-Sensei said that you would only have regular check up for today." Mayu told Kuroko as she packed up all of her bag. "Takao-Sensei has lots of patient for the day. That's why I volunteered to go to check on you, Kuroko-sama"

"Could you give me more pain killers, Mayu-san?" Kuroko asked her before Mayu left the room.

"Don't try to give her anything" Kuroko heard someone spoke from the entrance door. "Thank you for your work today"

"Please don't hesitate to call me if anything happened to Kuroko-sama, Akashi-sama" Mayu said as she bowed down to Akashi on her way out.

"I was just asking, Akashi-kun" Kuroko told him. Akashi has been staying in the house for the past five days after she had arrived back to Japan. And as he promised, he didn't let Kuroko to leave the room for the last five day. And he didn't give her any reason to do that either. Inside that room, there is a bathroom, a refrigerator that somehow installed in there. All of her casual clothes were in the closet. And there is a television to entertain her and her phone. Which she was limited to see three times a day only.

"You were planning to drink those pills and told me that you have gotten better" Akashi said to her.

"I wouldn't do that" but the look on her face clearly said that she was planning to do that. Akashi just happened to figure it out before Kuroko could have execute her plan.

"I was fooled when you told me that your wound wasn't hurting you." Akashi walked to where Kuroko was seated. "Taking ten pain killer pills at the same time could have killed you"

"I need to guard Akashi-kun" Kuroko answered simply.

"Yet, you understand I am perfectly capable of handling my own trouble" Akashi told her. He held Kuroko's cheek as he looked directly into her eyes. "Why are you being persistent to guard me?" Akashi whispered to her.

"Akashi-kun, you know the answer. I wanted to guard you because—" Akashi gave her the 'don't continue' look ad he picked up his phone. Kuroko didn't realize that Akashi has put his phone into vibrating mode since he entered the room.

"Akashi Seijuro" Akashi said to the phone. Kuroko could hear a female voice speaking on the other line of her phone. The expression in Akashi's face turned into sour as he listened to the woman speaking on the phone. His eyes catch into her questioning glance before he spoke.

"I understand. Please don't let the rat inside the house" Akashi spoke before he ended the call.

"What happened?" Kuroko asked Akashi.

"There is a rat amongst the employee in the office." Akashi told Kuroko as he put the phone back to his pocket. "And Satsuki just finished telling me about it"

"Let me handle that—"Kuroko stopped talking when she saw Akashi has move forward and his forehead touching hers. He looked into her eyes for a few moment, which Kuroko could see various emotion passing the mesmerizing heterochromatic eyes of his, before he leaned back as he kiss her forehead.

"Have a rest Tetsumi. That rat wasn't targeting me" Akashi told her before he exited the room.

"Then, Who?" Tetsumi asked him out loud. Akashi stopped in his track before he turned to look at Tetsumi and told her "That person target is Kise Ryouta"

-x-

Kise Ryouta was never this bored. Momoi told him that he had to stay late in the office because he need to recheck all of the security code he had made. Apparently, someone manage to broke through the server and almost stole a very important document. Momoi manage to stop that person before he, Kise assumed it would be a male who did this, managed to get his hand into whatever he wanted.

"Why Momocchi didn't tell me what kind of document that person wanted to steal? It would be easier if I started from there" Kise mumbled as he went through all the complicated process of sorting the data. Momoi also asked Kise to upgrade all of the system he has in hand, and Akashi already approved no matter how many he has to spend to upgrade this server.

"This is not about money, I have to make all the new adjustment and I have created the code" Kise mumbled again as he typed the keyboard in front of him. With his gigantic screen and as numerous words, numbers and symbols appeared on the screen. He waited for his new program to detect the weakness in his previous security program. As wait, he couldn't help but remembering that the first time Kise got a job in this company was because he was too careless when he tried to breach into Akashi's security.

"If it's not for Kurokocchi, I would be another criminal in this world. " Kise mumbled.

Kise was a student in one of the best University in the Europe. he got free scholarship to the Europe because he managed to point the fault in one of the biggest security company in Europe. Then he was told that he got the scholarship to go to university in Europe, as long as he was working part time in that Company.

He could not remember what the name of that company was but he could still remember what he had to do when he was working with that company. With Kise's ability, it was easy for that company to create a very deadly virus. That company used that virus to attack its own client as they proved that their clients need to invest more money to their security line.

He made the program to protect the company. but he also had to make a program to destroy his own program. At first he was glad with his reputation; he is the feared Cracker in the underworld. And also he is the genius computer programmer in the real world.

Kise aced every subject given to him when he was in university. And with his good look, it wasn't hard for him to find female companion because of his good look. His life was perfect until his last year of University.

"hmm? What is it?' Kise said as his new program detected the anomaly within his security. "This is some kind of message?" Kise realized the virus itself was harmless, but whoever made that virus was pretty smart. That person made the virus seemed to be a very lethal one. And in order to clean the virus, usually the programmers need to find the source.

"While I find the source, I will be instantly giving you free access to read all of the file in here, huh?" Kise spoke to himself as he chuckled darkly. "Are you trying to copy me?" Kise mumbled. He had seen this kind of code before and he knew he had deleted all of the history on how to make this kind of code when he changed to work for Akashi's company. It seemed someone from his past still keeping the lcode and now trying to set him up.

-x-

"He found out just one hour to figure out the gift I sent to him? It took me three months to understand the code" a person who was wearing black glasses said as she looked at her laptop. She was seated in a small coffee café next to Akashi's company building.

"You are really a prodigy." That girl said as she typed something into her laptop when all of sudden her laptop went blank. "Then again, that's the reason why I love you"

-x-

"Ki-chan, are you done yet?" Momoi looked at Kise, who was busy as he type furiously into his laptop. The right side of Kise's screen went into red colored as his left display already went blank. Momoi could see the main display in front of Kise, which was seventy something inches in size, has lots of opened task.

"Almost. I already shut down the link to that Cracker place all that's left was to create a decoy" Kise said without him looking at Momoi. "Also, could you tell Akashicchi that someone attacked our server?"

"You already took care of it Ki-chan. Why Akashi-kun need to know about it?"

"Because, I know who this person is. But I don't know whether this person want to targeting me or Akashicchi" Kise told Momoi. He stopped typing as he turned to look at Momoi. "I want Akashicchi to freeze all of his account for the day. "

"But—"

"Momocchi, please"

Momoi saw the look Kise gave to her; it was the look of pure agony. Momoi nodded before she run to call Akashi. It was a good thing Kuroko didn't come to the office today, and Aomine already left the office early. Otherwise Kise had to explain everything he had tried to hide from his past. Momoi picked up her cell as she hurried back to her office.

"Akashi-kun, this is Momoi—"

-x-

_Tick_

_Tick_

_Tick_

_Tick_

Kuroko heard the clock ticking and it started to get into her nerve. Akashi took her phone because it was "emergency matter' and her laptop. And he didn't forget to lock the door too. She has tried to close her eyes and hope that she would be able to sleep. She did fall asleep, but only for one hour.

Kuroko went to the window and for the first time she reconsider of escaping from that windows. Her room located on the third floor and she couldn't see any tree near her room. Then she tried to open the window.

"Akashi-kun forget to lock the window?' Kuroko mumbled. She looked out from the window and saw a small space that would be enough for her foot and she might be able to reach the tree that was next to the next room window. And lucky for her, that room is one of the library windows. Inside Akashi's house, they have two stories library and this particular window covered in the red curtain. Even if someone inside that library, that person wouldn't realize it unless he opened the curtain.

She packed up the money she had been secretly kept under her pillow and she climbed the window. When Kuroko was completely outside, she took a deep breath before she took baby steps toward the tree.

"One…two…three" she tried to keep focusing on counting her steps. She almost reached the next window when she saw a movement from the curtain.

"Akashi-sama, you have successfully frozen your entire asset for the next 24 hours. May I ask your reason to do this?" Kuroko heard one of the financial advisor voices coming from inside the library. _Akashi-kun froze his asset? Is it related to the attack inside the company's server? _Kuroko thought. She tried to eavesdrop better by trying to hold the window.

"There is no particular reason" she faintly heard Akashi answered.

"But, I am you advisor. You should have told me about your future plan regarding of this company's future" the advisor told Akashi.

"You may leave now. I will show you the way" she heard Akashi said as Kuroko faintly heard footsteps exited the class.

"Damn brat! He is just lucky to be born within the rich family" Kuroko heard the advisor said in an annoyed tone. It made Kuroko angry and she would remember this advisor voice and she will make sure this person will lose his job as soon as Kuroko was able to get back to work.

Usually, Kuroko is strong enough to climb a wall with a single rope. But at the condition where her wounded shoulder made her lost the grip on the window as she tried to move faster to the tree next to that window. She lost the grip and her footing. And she remembered that there are no bushes under her room.

_Am I going to die? _Kuroko thought as she tripped.

-x-

"Are you sure this is the right room?" Aomine asked Murasakibara. Earlier that day, Aomine wanted to talk to Kuroko about the condition of Margareth from their previous mission. But Akashi wouldn't let anyone meet Kuroko, not until she was fully healed.

"From what I have remembered, Kuro-chin's room was on the second floor" Murasakibara said to Aomine. in his hand, there are various snacks that Aomine and him has brought to give it to Kuroko.

"They have about twenty windows in this house!" Aomine complained. "And all of them are on the second floor only!"

"hmm, is that so?' Murasakibara said. Aomine sighed; he should have known that Murasakibara was pretty unreliable except when he was doing his mission. How could someone be this…relaxed? Also the sound of him munching his snacks started to annoy Aomine too.

"We should head to the main door and begged Akashi to let us in. "Aomine said dejectedly. "There is no way Tetsu would appear out of nowhere and save us from facing that red-haired demon"

Just seconds after Aomine said that, he saw a faded dark figure falling from the sky. As he looked up, he saw someone was falling.

"Wha—"Murasakibara has stepped to his side to save his precious snack as that person fall on top of Aomine.

"Ah, there is Kuro-chin" Murasakibara said casually as Kuroko suddenly appeared from the sky didn't surprise him.

"Good Afternoon, Murasakibara-kun" Kuroko answered robotically when she saw Murasakibara.

"Tetsumi" she heard someone groaned from under her.

"Are you okay, Aomine-kun?" Kuroko stood up on her feet instantly as she realized she had fall into Aomine. But she felt that she also sprain her ankle and she fall back down.

"It would be great if a big chest woman fall into me" Aomine mumbled before he lost his consciousness.

"Murasakibara-kun, could you carry me back to the house? It seemed I sprained my ankle" Kuroko asked the purple giant in from of her.

"Sure, but what about Mine-chin?" Murasakibara looked at the unconscious Aomine.

"Aomine-kun will be fine. Idiot will not die that easily"

-x-

Kise has been typing like his life depended on it. He managed to track back into that Cracker computer before she destroyed the entire connection. Kise assumed that she also destroy the entire computer she had used to launch an attack to security network.

"Momocchi" Kise said to the receiver in his ear. He heard one dial tone before Momoi picked up her phone.

"I got her location, but I guessed she would be long gone when you arrived there" Kise told Momoi.

"Ki-chan, you seemed to know this person?" she heard Momoi said from the other side of the line.

"You could say that this is one of my unfinished problems" Kise said sheepishly. "Can I ask you for one favor? But no one should have known about this"

"I will try."

Kise listed the things he asked Momoi to look for. Kise was known for his ability in computer programming, but this particular request was clearly for Momoi. She is one of the greatest information gatherer even when she has limited skill in using computer.

"I could do that. Is that the information you need about this Cracker?" he heard Momoi asked him.

"Yes. I hope you would be able to find the information tonight. I am going to leave the office early too" Kise told Momoi.

"are you planning to visit this person?" Momoi asked him.

"My way of visiting someone would be different than Kurokocchi and Aominecchi's way. You don't have to worry about me" Kise told Momoi before he ended the call. He picked up a small silver locket from one of his drawer before Kise left his office.

* * *

**AN:**

Hello Minna~ finally the latest update~

I was torn between making Christmas edition of this chapter, or I want to finish my other story

then my bff advise me that I should finish my other story(which have one happy ending) and save this one for later. (since I couldn't find the right idea to make this as christmas special.. )

please forgive me .

Also, I notice that the last chapter is pretty confusing? I have tried to change the confusing part... and if you still confused, pleas tell me in which part and how should I change it

for this chapter: I know nothing about computer programming(I just googled stuff) so if you have any idea, please don't hesitate to tell me  


and last but not least

Thank you for reading this chapter. and I hope you enjoy this. also, don't forget to leave a review XD


End file.
